Teacher Education in Diverse Settings: Making Space for Intersecting Worldviews 9463006915, 9789463006910

Table of contents :
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
ABBREVIATIONS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
CHAPTER 1:
SETTING THE SCENE
INTRODUCTION
UNDERLYING CONCEPTS
Culture
Indigenous Knowledges and Perspectives
Cultural Dissonance
Cultural Tension
Globalization
Early Childhood Education
THE DISCOURSE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHER EDUCATION
METHODOLOGICAL NOTES ON THE THREE CASES
REFERENCES
CHAPTER 2: CANADA:
A Bridging Program
INTRODUCTION
PART 1:
POLICY CONTEXT
Theories of Development and Learning
Image of the Child
Best Practices
School Readiness
Early Socialization and Home–Program Relations
Indigenous Knowledges and the Local Cultural and Linguistic Context
Early Childhood Certification and Educational Preparation
PART 2:
THE ILLUSTRATIVE CASE: THE BRIDGING PROGRAM
Theoretical Underpinnings
Immigrant and Refugee Child Care Educators
Canadian Research Site and Participants
Study Design
Curriculum and Instruction
Study Design
Curriculum and Instruction
Curriculum Content
Year One: Strategies to Elicit Students’ Cultural Knowledges
Year Two: Transition to Formal Postsecondary Learning
Tensions between Cultural and Professional Knowledge
Adult–Child Relationships
Interacting with Children
Gender Roles and Child Care
Image of the Child
Learning through Play
PART 3:
IMPLICATIONS FOR ECTE IN CANADA
REFERENCES
CHAPTER 3: NAMIBIA:
A Higher Degree Program
INTRODUCTION
PART 1:
POLICY CONTEXT
Policy Shifts over Time: From Informal ECD Settings to Formal Pre-primary
Classrooms
The Move toward a Higher Degree in Teacher Education
Ideas of the Child, Preschool, and Parents in Policy
Policy Challenges
PART 2:
THE ILLUSTRATIVE CASE: A HIGHER DEGREE IN TEACHER EDUCATION
Program Description
Methodology
Learner-centred Education
Language
PART 3:
IMPLICATIONS FOR ECTE IN NAMIBIA
REFERENCES
CHAPTER 4: COLOMBIA:
A Community Program
INTRODUCTION
PART 1:
POLICY CONTEXT
Images of the Child
Indigenous Knowledges and the Local Cultural and Linguistic Context
Early Socialization and Home–Program Relations
Theories of Child Development and Learning
Best Practices in Early Childhood
Early Childhood Certification and Educational Preparation
PART 2:
THE ILLUSTRATIVE CASE: A COMMUNITY PROGRAM
Context for the Program
Program Description
Methodology
Image of the Child and Early Socialization
Curriculum Content
Learning through Play
Pedagogical Approaches
The Role of Pedagogical Tools
PART 3:
IMPLICATIONS FOR ECTE IN COLOMBIA
REFERENCES
CHAPTER 5:
INTERSECTIONS
INTRODUCTION
MODELS OF THE CHILD
MODELS OF PRESCHOOL AND PRESCHOOL TEACHING
EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHER EDUCATION
Instructional Tools
Language
Intersecting Identities—Becoming a Teacher
Teaching and Parenting
IMPLICATIONS FOR ECTE
REFERENCES
INDEX

Citation preview

Teacher Education in Diverse Settings

Teacher Education in Diverse Settings Making Space for Intersecting Worldviews

Larry Prochner University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada Ailie Cleghorn Concordia University, Montreal, Canada Anna Kirova University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada and Christine Massing University of Regina, Regina, Canada

SENSE PUBLISHERS ROTTERDAM / BOSTON / TAIPEI

A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 978-94-6300-691-0 (paperback) ISBN 978-94-6300-692-7 (hardback) ISBN 978-94-6300-693-4 (e-book)

Published by: Sense Publishers, P.O. Box 21858, 3001 AW Rotterdam, The Netherlands https://www.sensepublishers.com/

All chapters in this book have undergone peer review.

Printed on acid-free paper

All rights reserved © 2016 Sense Publishers No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.

To early childhood teacher educators around the world

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

ix

Abbreviations

xi

Acknowledgements

xiii

Chapter 1. Setting the Scene

1

Introduction Underlying Concepts The Discourse of Early Childhood Teacher Education Methodological Notes on the Three Cases Chapter 2. Canada: A Bridging Program Introduction Part 1 – Policy Context Part 2 – The Illustrative Case: The Bridging Program Part 3 – Implications for ECTE in Canada Chapter 3. Namibia: A Higher Degree Program Introduction Part 1 – Policy Context Part 2 – The Illustrative Case: A Higher Degree in Teacher Education Part 3 – Implications for ECTE in Namibia Chapter 4. Colombia: A Community Program Introduction Part 1 – Policy Context Part 2 – The Illustrative Case: A Community Program Part 3 – Implications for ECTE in Colombia Chapter 5. Intersections

1 5 12 15 25 25 28 35 57 65 65 67 82 94 103 103 106 115 136 141

Introduction Models of the Child Models of Preschool and Preschool Teaching

vii

141 142 145

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Early Childhood Teacher Education Implications for ECTE Index

viii

147 171 181

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Figures Figure 2.1 Figure 2.2 Figure 2.3 Figure 3.1 Figure 4.1 Figure 5.1 Figure 5.2

Map of Canada Descriptive feedback versus praise The learning process Map of Namibia Map of Colombia What is your mental static? How can I clear the static?

26 51 60 66 105 151 152

Tables Table 2.1 Table 3.1 Table 5.1

Courses offered across five colleges Namibia’s language groups (2011) Distinctions between mothering and teaching in their central tendencies on seven dimensions

ix

41 83 168

ABBREVIATIONS

CRC DAP ECD ECE ECCE ECTE EFA ELCC FN GEIM ICBF L1 L2 MGECW NAMCOL NIED NGO OBE OECD UNESCO UNICEF

Convention on the Rights of the Child developmentally appropriate practice early childhood development early childhood education early childhood care and education early childhood teacher education Education for All early learning and child care field notes Grupo de Estudios en Educación Indígena y Multicultural (Study Group on Indigenous and Multicultural Education) Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar (Colombian Family Welfare Institute) first language second language Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare Namibian College of Open Learning National Institute for Educational Development nongovernmental organization outcomes-based education Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation United Nations Children’s Fund

xi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In the Canadian site, we first and foremost thank our research participants—the 19 child care educators who were excited by the opportunity to learn about Canadian culture and child care practices and to play a role in advancing knowledge in the childcare profession—as well the 19 volunteer mentors whose caring and expertise made the learning possible and the two primary instructors who opened their classroom to us. Many individuals and agencies lent their support to the program and to our research, including Mary Lynne Matheson and Dr. Jane Hewes from MacEwan University, and Corine Ferguson, Beth Arbuckle, and Aradhna Abraham from ARCQE, the Alberta Resource Centre for Quality Enhancement. The supervisors and directors of the agencies organized the participants’ schedules to allow them to attend the program and provided them, and us, with feedback and encouragement. The advisory committee of early childhood teacher educators from various Alberta postsecondary institutions—MacEwan University, NorQuest College, Bow Valley College, Red Deer College, and Keyano College—also gave valuable input throughout the phases of the project. We greatly appreciate the sustained engagement of the board of directors from the Intercultural Child and Family Centre, the cultural brokers from the Multicultural Health Brokers Cooperative (MCHB), and Yvonne Chiu, the Director of MCHB, whose trust and encouragement allowed the project to progress through periods of uncertainty. We thank Lori Shortreed, who assisted with the data collection and contributed thoughtful analyses. We offer a very special thanks to the bridging project manager, Dr. Carole Massing, whose deep commitment to the project and to this research was beneficial both to the participants and to the research team. Her insights into the experiences of the participants and the ways in which they negotiated with the various discourses of early childhood education were particularly invaluable. Finally, we thank the Alberta government for funding this important and timely bridging program project; the Alberta Centre for Child, Family, and Community Research and MacEwan University for funding the initial research project from which this study originated; and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for providing funding for this larger study. In Namibia, we acknowledge our research participants, especially the seven teacher educators in Windhoek and those we encountered at the former teacher colleges, and the student teachers, especially the six we came to know quite well in Windhoek. Thank you for your time and interest in this teacher education project. We wish to thank several people at the University of Namibia where the researcher was based during her visits to Namibia. There were many who opened doors and provided financial reporting support and office space in the Teaching Learning Improvement Unit. They include Dr. Kenneth Matengu, then director of international and external relations, Dean Charmaine Villet, Dr. R. Kavena Shalyefu, Dr. Cynthy Haihambo, Dr. R. Zimba, Mrs. Emelda de Klerk, and many xiii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

others. Two doctoral students worked hard as research assistants: Linda Overing from Concordia University and Marika Matengu from the University of Oulo; your help was invaluable both in carrying out the research in Namibia and in the review of many, many policy documents. Thank you all. In Colombia, our partners at the University of Cauca were instrumental in negotiating and facilitating all aspects of this research. We are especially grateful to the rector, Dr. Juan Diego Castrillón Urrego, and the dean of education, Dr. William Garcia, who gave much of their time and support for this project. We are also very thankful to all of the members of the Grupo de Estudios en Educación Indígena y Multicultural (the Research Group for Studies in Indigenous and Multicultural Education) for their hospitality and invaluable assistance, particularly Carlos Ignacio Zuñiga Lopez (director), Betty Vidal, Borgia Enrico Acosta, Harold Andrés Bolaños, Diego Ernesto Vallejo Benavides, and Francois Gravel. Our graduate research assistant, Maria Fernanda Orozco Mosquera, was a wonderful addition to our team, and her professional and sensitive approach to data collection in Misak territory was appreciated. Mauricio Salegio Ramirez provided us with exceptional translations of all the contracts and ethics forms. We offer special thanks to the Misak Authority and to the parents, educators, children, and community members for welcoming us into their territory and sharing their understandings with us. In particular, we benefited from the wisdom of a number of elders from throughout the Guambía region who guided us toward a deeper understanding of their knowledges and worldview, including Taita Manuel Julio, Mama María Elena, Mama Luz Dary, Taita José Antonio, Mama Antonia, Taita Oscar, and Taita Cristian, Finally, Luz Marina Hoyos Vivas, a doctoral student at Concordia University, assisted in navigating many aspects of this project and conducted a very thorough review of the policy documents. Her insights on early childhood programs in the Colombian context were very much appreciated and have definitely enriched this work.

xiv

CHAPTER 1

SETTING THE SCENE

INTRODUCTION

Teacher Education in Diverse Settings presents a study of initial educator preparation in three social contexts: a training program for immigrant child care educators in Canada, a pre- and lower primary specialization in a teacher education program in Namibia, and a partnership between the Misak indigenous communities in Colombia and the University of Cauca to deliver courses for educators within their communities.1 In each setting we explore the relationships between indigenous ways of thinking and western discourse in reference to the preparation of educators, whether they be teachers, community leaders, or newly arrived immigrants in Canada. In each case we focus on the tensions between the local understandings and global ideas, and the creation of space for diverse but intersecting worldviews. Very little research in teacher education has challenged the dominant and prescriptive Euro-American view in early childhood education (ECE) with an approach that includes indigenous perspectives. The dominant discourse, which is spread through the process of globalization, including policy borrowing, is characterized by concepts such as play-based learning, developmentally appropriate practice, and child-centred pedagogy—concepts that are found in teacher training curricula as well as in the taken-for-granted assumptions of some teacher educators about what is best for the world’s children. Rarely does one find in African teacher education programs, for example, the research findings of African scholars, such as Hasima Ebrahim (2012), Bame Nsamenang (2004), Kofi Marfo (2011), Peter Mwaura (2008), Robert Serpell (2011), or Therese Tchombe (Nsamenang & Tchombe, 2011). Similar concerns attend to the training of immigrant child care workers in countries such as Canada, where immigrant trainees’ cultural traditions and beliefs have little currency in Canada’s highly diverse multilingual and multicultural urban education settings. The usual approach to training immigrant child care workers is largely assimilative due to the need to prepare them for work within early childhood settings that tend to be typified by the global ECE discourse already mentioned. In Colombia, early childhood educator training is overwhelmingly framed by western theories, thus perpetuating an ages-and-stages approach to child development and care that contradicts the –––––––––––––– 1 Students in the three research sites are prepared to work in different types of settings (school, preschool, child care centre), and have different designations, both for the individuals working with children (teacher, practitioner, educator, educarer, etc.) and the process of their preparation (training, education, etc.).

1

CHAPTER 1

Colombian government’s official position that home cultures and languages should be maintained and affirmed in early childhood programs. In Namibia’s universitybased teacher education program, one finds a similar adherence to western theory that is largely reflected in government policy. This research builds on our earlier studies where a range of interpretations was observed among early childhood teachers and teacher educators about the meaning and application of key concepts such as best practice, child-centred teaching, developmentally appropriate practice, and play-based curriculum (Cleghorn & Prochner, 1997, 2003, 2010; Kirova, 2010; Massing, 2015; Prochner, 2002). Cleghorn and Prochner (2003) used a conceptual framework drawn from LeVine et al. (1994) to provide insight into western and nonwestern visions of childhood via two distinct cultural models of child care, the pediatric and the pedagogical. Although the models put forward by LeVine and his colleagues refer to the features of infant child care in only two contexts—one African and one middle-class North American—they point to very different conceptualizations of early socialization that tend to persist into later teaching-learning situations, whether formalized or not. We have found their respective features to be manifested in various ways in teachers’ attitudes and approaches in early childhood programs in India and in eastern and southern Africa. They also bring attention to shifts in practice that coincide with rural-to-urban migration, decrease in child mortality, increase in access to preschool and regular schooling, and increase in the formal training of early childhood teachers (LeVine, 2003). While advocates of either the pediatric or the pedagogical model might be critical of the other model’s practices and goals and deem them “inappropriate and ineffective” (Mistry, Chaudhuri, & Diez, 2003, p. 244), in school contexts the pedagogical model is likely to prevail. That is to say, when the two models come into contact in school settings where parents from more traditional cultural communities encounter educators’ views of how children “ought” to be socialized for today’s world of schooling, the result is likely to be a change in the parental agenda in favour of school aims, “with an increasing premium on skills related to the child’s future school career” (LeVine, 2003, p. 10). With this tendency in mind, it is important for early childhood teacher educators to understand that these models interact uniquely in each context and each relates differently to a group’s needs for economic survival: the pediatric model to a rural, subsistence economy and the pedagogical model to the highly differentiated economy of urban North America, for example. That is, when the home environment is relatively impoverished, nonliterate, and nonwestern, as in rural and semi-rural Namibia and Colombia, the prevailing pediatric model of child care will likely emphasize health and physical survival. The teaching of moral and other values may occur through oral storytelling, with little use of language between adults and children for encouraging or answering questions, reading stories, or building vocabulary—the kinds of discourse patterns found in schools. Beyond infancy, one may observe a shift in focus to children’s mastery of specific skills through observation and

2

SETTING THE SCENE

imitation via the respect-obedience model2, which suggests a culturally shared vision of the adult-to-be as one who can function within a hierarchical society where the authority of a parent or other adult (such as a teacher) is not to be questioned (Shumba, 1999). In contrast, the pedagogical model of early socialization is adapted to the social and economic structure of societies such as Canada, where most learners complete secondary school and many receive postsecondary education. In such societies, the dominant group’s vision of the adult-to-be is of a person who values individual competition and achievement and is ideologically oriented toward democratic ways of doing things—within families as well as in school and society at large. Typically, the child-rearing methods of middle-class educated parents dovetail with the kinds of interaction patterns that the child will encounter in school (LeVine, 2003), for example, extensive listening, speaking, reasoning, explaining, asking, answering, comparing, labelling, and counting. We ask to what extent this model fits with the experience of immigrant families and immigrant child care educators, for instance in Canada. While schools everywhere are increasingly middle-class institutions (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990), does the immigrant child find school a familiar place, as would a middleclass western child? How can the cultural knowledge that some early childhood educators hold find its legitimate place in ECTE in Canada so that families and children from diverse nonwestern backgrounds can have better school experiences? We considered each of the countries included in the research to be undergoing rapid social change in conjunction with factors such as rural-to-urban migration, technological innovation, economic conditions, and increased perceptions of threats to security. Social change implies societal development, from past ways of doing things to new ways that may be considered by policy makers and planners as more “modern” development that brings change to people’s lives in terms of behaviour, beliefs, and attitudes. At the global level, one thinks immediately of developments in technology and the speed with which information now travels. Much of the information that can now be downloaded from the Internet is “globalized,” meaning that it is essentially western in content, and educators are invited to use the information, such as commercial worksheets, whether or not the content is culturally appropriate for their learners. We ask what such change means for teachers, teacher educators, and learners in each setting. Previous comparative studies suggest that social change affects teachers’ and learners’ experience in a variety of ways, depending on the particular context. For example, social change may apply a subtle pressure on teachers to do things differently than they were originally trained to do, for example, moving to child-centred or play-based teaching strategies. So in this regard we see how change at the global level may have local outcomes that are not completely predictable. Another example comes from the increasing inclination of governments to import or borrow education policies that are deemed to have worked well in one part of the world, which are –––––––––––––– 2 The pediatric model (LeVine et al., 1994) shifts to the respect-obedience model for children beyond infancy.

3

CHAPTER 1

soon found to be unacceptable to teachers in another. Examples that come to mind are South Africa’s effort to implement outcomes-based education (Jansen & Christie, 1999) and learner-centred pedagogies in Namibia and other places (Chisholm & Leyendecker, 2008; O’Sullivan, 2004; Schweisfurth, 2011, 2013). Teacher education and early childhood programs may be expected to reflect local community values and approved behaviours while responding to social change by, for example, educating teachers in the still-dominant theories of child development, understandings of best practice, and the like (Lubeck, 1996). However, while social, economic, and technological change can be rapid, culture tends to change slowly. The term cultural lag coined by sociologist William F. Ogburn (1922) suggests that a period of maladjustment occurs when the nonmaterial culture (e.g., thoughts and behaviours that people learn as part of the culture they live in) is struggling to adapt to new material conditions (e.g., all of the physical objects that people create and give meaning to). However, critics of cultural lag hypothesis (e.g., Herman, 1937) point to the fact that the direction of adjustment cannot be objectively determined, and argue that whether material or nonmaterial culture is lagging depends on the values one brings to bear on the situation. According to Herman (1937), “adjustment entails (1) understanding change and its consequences, (2) understanding the resistances to change, and (3) either controlling change or overcoming the resistances to it, or both” (p. 440). Given that culture is always changing, Choukas (1936) suggests that although cultural lag “springs out of the dynamic nature of culture,” that dynamic nature is “not sufficient to explain the appearance of cultural lag” (p. 753). This leads him to propose that there is “differential culture change” (p. 753). It is in this regard that the pediatric and pedagogical models described above may also be discussed in terms of differential culture change in values, such as interpersonal relatedness to independence, emotional interdependence to autonomy, material interdependence to material emancipation, and, collective to individualistic identity (Kâgitçibasi, 2007). It is evident that societal change in terms of economic, technological, and other aspects of development may bring a number of transitions as well as lack of consensus regarding how things “ought” to be. For example, teacher education students in Namibia may be confronted with conceptual shifts in thought toward more western or globalized notions of how children are to be socialized in the preschool years, and in Canada newly arrived immigrant teachers often report a sharp discontinuity between early socialization in the home community and the culture that is encountered at school (Kirk, 2004; Simpson, 2000). Thus, teacher educators may need explicit knowledge about the kinds of discontinuities just mentioned since they create conceptual, cultural, and linguistic boundaries that teachers and young learners may be expected to cross (Giroux, 1992). If early childhood educators wonder about the meaning and application of such westerngenerated concepts as child-centred approaches, developmentally appropriate practice, and play-based curriculum, it is not surprising then if the early school experience is also unfamiliar and seemingly irrelevant for the young children in their charge, many of whom may also be new arrivals (Breton-Carbonneau, 4

SETTING THE SCENE

Cleghorn, Evans, & Pesco, 2012; Cleghorn & Prochner, 2010; Evans & Cleghorn, 2012; Heath, 1983; Jegede & Aikenhead, 1999; Morris, McLeod, & Danesi, 1993). Thus the experiences that teacher education programs offer are critically important for preparing teachers and children (and families) for these border crossings, so that, ideally, indigenous and local ways of knowing, doing, and being can be incorporated into the otherwise “modern” or globalized schooling process, and the chances for success in school are maximized (Ewing, 1998). When local ways of knowing or indigenous perspectives are not included, it is well known that nondominant languages and cultures as well as personal identities can be seriously weakened, if not lost, with potentially disastrous results for learners’ overall development and achievement in school (Battiste, 2011; Ewing, 1998; WongFillmore, 1991). In sum, diverse influences may be reflected in programs that prepare early childhood educators and teachers in the light of rapid social and personal change. Such changes, or transitions, also point to ways in which traditional child-rearing patterns and views of childhood (e.g., how children ought to behave, what they need to learn) may represent a cost or a benefit to be hung on to or retrieved for children, families, and communities. While we agree that the school should adapt to the cultural conditions of the child, it is more likely that its hegemonic patterns—western curricula, learning materials, and teaching methods—will persist and become even more entrenched. Our goal is to investigate ways that teacher educators, parents, and communities can better prepare children for the realities of schooling while preserving the integrity of local norms and values through educator preparation programs. We suggest that this goal must be accomplished for young learners everywhere to realize their potential. UNDERLYING CONCEPTS

Culture Current conceptualizations of culture drawn from cultural studies (e.g., Hall, 1996) and critical anthropology (e.g., Clifford, 1988, 1992) define it as the whole way of life of a society or group of a particular period and as a dynamic rather than a static phenomenon (Hartman, 1997). We use the term culture in the anthropological sense to refer to ways of thinking, seeing, and behaving that characterize members of a social group (Geertz, 1973). This includes taken-for-granted ways of knowing and doing that exist, nevertheless, within ever-changing values, traditions, and social and political relationships. Culture in this sense is created, shared, and transformed by people bound by common history, geographic location, language, social class, and religion or belief system. It is socially constructed and learned through the process of socialization, starting within the family and community, from infancy to adulthood. Shi-Xu (2001) identifies four interrelated dynamic properties or dimensions of culture. First and foremost, culture is a set of meaningful practices, where meanings in relation to “origin, race, ethnicity, religion, language, nationality and 5

CHAPTER 1

patterns of thinking and acting are associated with a particular group of people from a particular geo-political place and historical time, and where practices are constituted in historically situated, social, largely discursive, interaction” (p. 283). Second, cultural identity is a pervasive and central property of such meanings and practices. As a dimension of self-understanding, identity may be distinguished between at least two general positions: the cultural self (we/us) and the Other (they/them). Third, the embeddedness of meaningful practices in unequal relations between different ethnic, gender, and class groups politicizes culture. And fourth, culture is called heteroglossic (Bakhtin, 1981), intertextual (Kristeva, 1986), travelling or globalized (Clifford, 1992), suggesting that culture is neither monolithic nor static. Instead, because processes criss-cross in human culture, “it is both historical (‘backward-looking’) and dynamic (‘forward-looking’)” (Shi-Xu, 2001, p. 283). Shi-Xu’s assertion that human culture has the capacity to “re- and trans-form itself” (p. 283) challenges the assumption that culture has “components” (e.g., visual arts, music, dance, food) that can be “learned about, imitated and ‘shared’” (Olneck, 1990, pp. 162–163). Indigenous Knowledges and Perspectives We use the word indigenous in several contexts to point to indigenous knowledges or perspectives, or, more colloquially, local ways of knowing. Indigenous knowledges are ways of knowing or being that are unique to a given culture, as in local conceptions that underlie a group’s beliefs about how children are to be socialized. Indigenous knowledge is rooted in tradition as a dynamic body of knowledge that is transmitted or passed on within the group in specified ways. That is, while it may not be written down, it is organized. Although indigenous knowledge is embedded in culture (Nieto, 2008), it has unique purpose, advancing specific beliefs, worldviews, and a body of local knowledge. It is often taught with a goal, systematically and more explicitly than the manner in which culture is transmitted. For example, a nomadic hunting-gathering group passes on its knowledge about edible and medicinal plants, as well as about visual evidence in the immediate environment of the presence of animals that provide food. Another example lies in parents’ beliefs about the signs of intelligence in a young child that may contrast markedly with the knowledge that the same child’s teachers acquire in their training programs (Nsamenang & Tchombe, 2011; Serpell, 1993). Indigenous knowledge contrasts starkly with minority world3 dominant discourse or theory in ECE that is rooted the developmental psychology of the 19th century. And, with particular regard to the preparation of early childhood educators, one asks where and how the knowledge base continues to be constructed (Super & Harkness, 2008). Elsewhere in this book we use the word indigenous in a very specific way to refer to a particular ethno-linguistic group of people who self–––––––––––––– 3 We use the terms minority world and majority world to emphasize the reality that the western world, despite its hegemonic position, represents only a small minority of the world’s population.

6

SETTING THE SCENE

identify as a social group bounded by common traditions, social norms, and sense of belonging in a particular location within a larger societal context. Cultural Dissonance The word dissonance occurs in much of the literature reviewed for this book; however, it clearly has different meanings, depending on whether the discussion centres on real or imagined encounters among people or groups that are marked by differences in culture, language, religion, or societal norms governing the behaviour of children or adults. According to Austin, Willett, Gebhard, and Montes (2010), the experience of cultural dissonance can lead to conflict or confusion, requiring space in teacher education for dialogue and critical reflection. Cavalcanti (1996), rather than using the word dissonance, speaks of cross-cultural misunderstandings. Cultural dissonance was evident in Evans and Cleghorn’s (2012) study of complex teacher-learner encounters in lower primary classrooms in South Africa where the language of instruction was English. Since there were new arrivals to South Africa from several different African countries, the learners in these classrooms represented nearly all the official language groups of South Africa, as well as French and Portuguese. Most of the teachers in the school, while black South African, did not share the learners’ home languages, thus there were several levels at which cultures came into contact within the classrooms. Evans and Cleghorn characterized what they observed in terms of instructional dissonance because teachers’ heavily accented and nonstandard use of English evidently baffled learners who were still acquiring English as an additional language and for learning. This form of dissonance was most evident in the analysis of teacherlearner interactions during the use of print and visual materials. These observations also suggested that the teachers lacked a kind of awareness that Ang (2011) refers to as cultural intelligence. Cultural Tension Although, as Hasson and Gonen (1997) noted, there is no clear or agreed-upon definition of cultural tension in the literature, the term has been used to describe the perception of what happens when individuals from different cultures (e.g., ethnic/dominant groups) come into contact with one another in regards to educational, occupational, parental, and religious issues, among others. At an individual and group level, different descriptions of cultural tension focus on process, power, and identity formation (e.g., bicultural identity within the context of adopting the values and precepts of an occupation; e.g., Kanu, 2005; Kondo, 2004; Lee, 2013; Pepper & Larson, 2006). In the education and occupation literature, cultural tension is described as occurring at the intersection of personal and ethnic identity (values) and dominant values embedded and expressed in occupational, educational, and societal (colonial) contexts (e.g., Helfrich, 1999; Nasir & Saxe, 2003; Soler & Miller, 2003; Tarry, 2011). This perspective suggests a liminal phase of negotiation that is generally undertaken by subjugated or 7

CHAPTER 1

marginalized individuals or groups in their relation to the dominant culture or occupation, and thus it tends to have a negative connotation. However, there is also recognition that tensions do not necessarily lead to adoption of the dominant view; rather, individuals in educational contexts are agentic in that they can and do make choices as to what to reject, adapt, or simply subvert within the context (Chang, 2007; Gutierrez, Larson, & Kreuter, 1995; Lee, 2013; Pepper & Larson, 2006; Tarry, 2011). In terms of cultural tensions in the development of programs or curriculum, the recognition of the need to adapt materials, approaches, and dominant curriculum to the context of the individuals from other, usually subjugated cultural/ethnic/racial backgrounds to support desired outcomes, such as educational and occupational outcomes typically based on western educational philosophies, has been clearly identified in the literature (e.g., Kahn & Kelly, 2001; Yan, 2008). In the chapters that follow, we consider tension with particular reference to teacher educators’ confrontations with concepts and ideas that do not align with their beliefs or prior experience. That is, we seek to understand how teacher educators negotiate the tensions that exist when their cultural models of teaching, learning, and child socialization are challenged within the context of the teacher education program—by the student teachers, the teacher educators, and the educational institution. Globalization The term globalization most often refers to the integration of economic activity across borders, to the spread of people and ideas shaped by technology, institutions, and policy (Wolf, 2014), and to a process in which events, decisions, activities, and products in one part of the world can significantly affect communities in other parts of the world (McGrew & Lewis, 1992). Globalization may also be viewed as “the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away” (Giddens, 1990, p. 64). Globalization is not a causal factor, however, and Hay and Smith (2005) suggest that its real power lies in “its discursive (rather than material) role” (p. 125). Globalization has implications for the development of higher education, including teacher education, due to “the economic, political and societal forces pushing twenty-first century higher education toward greater international involvement” (Altbach & Knight, 2007, p. 290). In this book we use the term globalization with something quite specific in mind: the spread of ideas, mainly from North to South, or minority world to majority world, about what early childhood educators need to know. It is in this sense that we understand globalization as a process that privileges certain topics and objects of knowledge that normalize particular understandings of the nature of children, childhood, motherhood, and ECE professional practice. It is in the encounter with the body of knowledge identified earlier as the global discourse in ECE that tensions between local ideas and global prescriptions for preparing early 8

SETTING THE SCENE

childhood educators are thought to emerge. One of the aims of this book is to see shared understandings that intertwine the local with the global evolve in light of the likely persistence of local identities and meanings. To elaborate, globalization touches the educational domain in several ways: through policy borrowing with reference to “best practices”; in the content of text materials used in teacher education and preschool curricula; and with the easy use of the Internet for downloading educational materials, whether locally familiar or not, to be used with young children. Globalization thus has economic, social, cultural, and political elements spreading various objects, experiences, ideas, and policies worldwide (Steiner-Khamsi, 2006). Although this process could result in debate about what the view of the child should be, and, for example, what constitutes quality in early childhood settings, our concern is that these matters may not be discussed enough. Teacher educators need to reflect on what the local priority should be: school readiness, with the emphasis on pre-reading and premath; or care, play, socialization, and healthy development in line with local values and traditions. To the extent that the preschool curriculum content may be at odds with indigenous (local) views of the child and of how children develop and learn, the impact on teacher education may be great. In the chapters that follow we will comment on the extent to which the local is interwoven with the global in each setting, its potential to influence professional identities, and the extent to which teacher educators are aware that they are engaged in this potentially informative and valuable postcolonial process (Gupta, 2008). One of the central aims in our research in each setting is to investigate the intersection of the local with the global. For example, are cultural shifts taking place, from a communal orientation in which individual identity is tied directly to membership in the extended family and community group, to an individualistic orientation as evidenced by an emphasis on individual achievement, competition, and ideas of getting ahead, of social mobility? To what extent are policy makers and education planners tying the financing of early education to nation building, progress, and competition on the world stage? With specific regard to teacher educators, as noted in the earlier brief discussion of the dominant discourse in ECE, western-generated theories about child development often form the basis of teacher training courses, the mistaken assumption being that these theories are universally applicable (Nsamenang, 2007; Pence & Marfo, 2008). Teacher educators are also influenced by the recommended use of a specific approach, such as Reggio Emilia, HighScope, or Montessori, through imported learning materials, including puzzles, plastic blocks, and donated children’s storybooks containing western themes. Of greater concern is the increasing inclination toward the use of English, both for training educators and in classrooms as the language of teaching and learning, at the expense of the rich repertoire of local (indigenous) languages, which carry untranslatable indigenous knowledge and moral values specific to the particular group. While a country may advocate use of home languages for the first few years of schooling, one observes an unofficial worldwide trend toward the use of English, even in the preschool years (Benson & Kosonen, 2013; Cleghorn & Prochner, 9

CHAPTER 1

2010). When learning a second or additional language means losing the first, the effects for learners can be subtractive in terms of identity, personal development, and learning (Evans & Cleghorn, 2012; Tollefson & Tsui, 2004; Wong-Fillmore, 1991). Early Childhood Education A small number of core ideas about childhood have endured across time and have influenced developments in ECE over the past two centuries. To the extent that approaches to ECE are exported or borrowed, these ideas are evident in transnational education movements. Two ideas have been particularly significant drivers for policies related to ECE: (1) the notion that very young children are capable of learning, and (2), the idea that early experience has a significant influence on later development. Accordingly, ECE has taken shape in the form of interventions aimed to “affect (sic) developmental changes in children from birth to 8 years of age” (Gordon & Browne, 2014, p. 3), focusing on activities to enhance development and impact other facets of children’s lives—such as preparing children for school and assessing and adjusting their behaviour. In addition, ECE includes such diverse aims as reducing poverty, assimilating newcomers, and revitalizing culture. In short, the developmental, cultural, and social space of childhood is contested territory in which stakeholders seek to influence early learning as a means to achieve diverse aims. Organized, formal educational interventions occur in a range of settings, including homes, preschools, child care centres, and primary schools. The curriculum content is planned according to the intervention’s purpose, which may include focusing on knowledge, skills, and values related to academics, culture, or language education, or on children’s physical, social, and emotional well-being. In his framework for analyzing preschool teaching practice, Chaiklin (2014) describes preschool education as an idealized form of care and socialization in which the objective is determined by societal needs. A set of “categorical relations”4 supports the objective; that is, the categories of curriculum, learning materials, and other resources, as well as an image of the child (developing child, whole child, the child as an individual, etc.). It follows that early childhood educator preparation can be viewed as a way to produce an idealized or at least a normative form of teaching practice, with categories related to the curriculum; the pedagogy of teacher education, including the use of technology and resources; the teaching and learning environment; and the image of the adult (e.g., maternal teacher, pastoral teacher, clinician) in the early childhood setting. Programs preparing adults to work in ECE settings range from short training courses to university programs leading to a bachelor of education. The adults who work in early childhood settings continue to be mainly female, with roles distinguished as teacher, educator, or practitioner, depending on the focus of the –––––––––––––– 4 Categorical relations refer to categories that are “in a system … including possible constraints and interactions in these relations” (Chaiklin, 2014, p. 230).

10

SETTING THE SCENE

program and their credentials. In some cases, parents or community members function as volunteer or paid educators. Historically, US Head Start programs hired local community members called “indigenous paraprofessionals” as a cost-saving measure (Halpern, 1995, p. 180). In this usage of the term, indigenous refers to workers “recruited from the target population” (Graziano & Katz, 1982, p. 215), which may include parents of children in programs. Recruiting “indigenous” parents as program staff in this case is based on the notion that the parents will carry their new learning into their home and community, influencing other parents to use a similar approach to child socialization. Improving access to high-quality early childhood education is a priority for governments worldwide. The recent history of this interest began in the 1950s, when international agencies were concerned for the well-being of children in the developing world. The United Nations adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959 and declared the 1960s the Decade of Development. In 1963, the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) released its landmark report Children of the Developing Countries, which emphasized a whole-child approach to protecting vulnerable children and preparing them for the future through health, nutrition, and educational programs. In the 1950s, UNICEF began using schools as community hubs for services supporting child health, such as feeding and vaccination programs (Jones, 2004). There was, however, little emphasis on preschool programs in international development work, although child care was promoted as a support for working mothers and a means of child protection (UNICEF, 1963). The World Declaration on Education for All in Jomtein, Thailand, in 1990 included early childhood development (ECD) as an element of basic education, bringing increased attention to preschool education. ECD was the first goal of the Dakar Framework for Action (UNESCO, 2000), along with a priority for teacher education and development. These developments contributed further to a high interest in ECD, as shown in the OECD’s Starting Strong reports (2001, 2006, 2012) and the European Commission’s Barcelona Agreement and reflected in a movement calling for universal access to ECD (Pence & Marfo, 2008) and preschool (Rose, 2010; Swiniarski, 2014; Zigler, Gilliam, & Jones, 2006). Nevertheless, fundamental aspects of ECD initiatives, including their conceptual underpinnings, are contested, with ongoing debates on the nature of childhood (Stables, 2008; Taylor, 2013), the notion of intervention (Kâgitçibasi, 2007), and the roles of teachers, families, communities, and children themselves (Dahlberg & Moss, 2005). Despite substantial improvements in rates of child survival in majority nation contexts in the 20th century (Myers, 1992), UNICEF’s 2015 report The State of the World’s Children concludes that “too many children remain excluded from the progress of the past 25 years” (UNICEF, 2015, p. 4). Sealander (2003) dubbed the last century as “the failed century of the child” in relation to policy and programs in the US. Moreover, she observed that the preschool model of the late 20th century drew on the 19th century for its inspiration in the form of the poverty-track infant schools for children deemed to be “at risk.” As Moss and

11

CHAPTER 1

Petrie (2002) point out, such interventions “follow from a belief in the child, and her normalisation, as a cure for society’s ills” (p. 3). THE DISCOURSE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHER EDUCATION

Our book’s focus is the education of educators, which, in ECE contexts, prepares adults to positively influence children’s development and learning according to a plan described as a curriculum or a program. We are concerned with the intersection of ideas about children and learning, as well as with learning as it occurs in adults. While adult education is a field of study in its own right, all teacher education can be seen as a form of adult education aimed at adults’ socialization as educators of young children, their acquisition of a relevant knowledge base and skills in methods of instruction, and their inculcation of a set of normative values. In this process, however, generally little consideration is given to adult students’ prior knowledge about childhood learning and socialization (Gupta, 2013; Monzó & Rueda, 2003). Much teacher education focuses on the imparting of new knowledge meant to replace students’ prior practical theories about teaching and learning. This tendency may lead to a kind of layering of new knowledge on top of existing knowledge rather than an intersection of the old with the new, a situation that we believe needs considerable reflection, if not fundamental change. The importance of paying attention to practical theories is highlighted in Stenberg, Karlsson, Pitkaniemi, and Maaranen’s (2014) study of teacher education students, which found that the majority of the students’ practical theories involved the “moral nature of teaching” (p. 215) and the teacher-child relationship. A number of gender-related beliefs or assumptions about personality variables or dispositions claim that some individuals are more naturally suited than others to working with young children (Bushnell, 2002). The ideal of the maternal teacher who nurtures children’s development along a known pathway is a central trope in ECE. Gibson (2015) considered teacher candidates’ discourses of early childhood teachers based on their images of children and of quality. One view she identified was “teacher as heroine,” fitting a notion of children as victims in need of saving. In this view, children were “rescued” by teachers who engaged them in play, stimulated their brain development, and helped them build positive relationships with peers and adults. Nevertheless, the basis of early childhood educator preparation is a conviction that it can change thinking and behaviour in a substantial and positive way within the context of a specific program of study. The same is true within teacher education in general, where the aim is to change teacher candidates’ beliefs in relation to what are understood to be research-based approaches to teaching and learning and scientific knowledge of subject-area content. In this sense, teacher educators are change agents, though with change oriented to helping students acquire beliefs similar to their own (La Paro, Siepak, & Scott-Little, 2009), However, the majority of research over a period of several decades has pointed to the resistance of beliefs to change (Cabaroglu & Roberts, 2000; Freeman, 1993; Sendan & Roberts, 1998; Tatto, 1998). 12

SETTING THE SCENE

While preparation for teachers in schools follows government (national, provincial, or regional) standards and leads to formal certification, requirements for educators working with children before school-starting age, along with their programs of training, are far more variable (Whitebook et al., 2012). Teacher education curriculum typically combines aspects of what is sometimes called the art and science of teaching, including (1) self-study and praxis, which may be organized around a teaching metaphor such as gardener, mother, or artist (Simpson, Jackson, & Aycock, 2004), (2) course work on learning theory, classroom management, and educational foundations, (3) a content focus on science, mathematics, and other subjects, and (4) supervised teaching practice. The curriculum for teachers of young children generally follows a more integrated approach to subjects, with a focus on early literacy and an emphasis on the study of child development theory and child care. The curriculum for children and the curriculum to prepare adults to teach children can be relatively similar, as in traditional kindergarten and nursery school teacher education in which adult students learned teaching techniques by using kindergarten blocks or participating in dramatic play themselves. In this way adult students served as proxies for children as part of their preparation as educators. Acquiring ideas about teaching through using teaching materials also has a basis in the history of kindergarten education and the notion that Froebel’s educational theory could only be understood through directed use of his materials. A related pedagogy is modelling by teacher educators, which may be an unintentional influence on student teachers or used as a specific instructional strategy. Because teacher educators both “teach their students as well as teach about teaching” (Korthagen, Loughran, & Lunenberg, 2005, p. 111), they are expected to model learner-centred pedagogies as they teach about them. Early childhood educator preparation usually includes applied child study, that is, focused observations of individual children and children in groups as a means to link theory (child development theory, learning theory, etc.) to practice. Observation in this instance is an educational method, that is, a basis for planning and assessment. In most training programs students have one or more opportunities to teach children under the occasional supervision of a critic teacher and with experienced classroom teachers in a community school or other ECE setting. The aim is to practice skills and develop a professional identity in a real-world context. Programs for preparing teachers for work in schools are offered in a variety of settings, from teachers colleges and faculties of education in research-intensive universities, to within schools and communities (Noel, 2013). The location of programs for preparing early childhood educators includes a similar continuum of settings, reflecting the type of credential, from a bachelor of education with a specialization in ECE offered in a university program, to a short training course leading to a certificate, located in a college or directly in a community-based program (Child Care Human Resources Sector Council, 2009). In addition, training focusing on a specific approach to early education, for example, the philosophy of Rudolph Steiner or Maria Montessori, is offered in private institutions.

13

CHAPTER 1

A study of teacher education in the United States noted a tendency for the various program components—course work, field experiences, and so on—to be “separated from the others, each part frequently taught by different people with little or no communication among the key actors” (Goodlad, 1990, p. 31). This approach is less likely to be the case in smaller institutions where faculty have a role across a number of components, that is, as instructors in courses and in supervising teaching practice. The term teacher educator generally refers to those working in a professional program in a university. The basic qualification for a teacher educator is disciplinary or subject-area expertise in an aspect of the teacher educator program—educational foundations, curriculum, and pedagogy—at the doctoral level. While many teacher educators may have professional school-based teaching experience, it is generally required for subject-area content faculty members (Fisher, 2009). There is a paucity of research on teacher educators (Lunenburg, Korthagen, & Swennen, 2007), and few studies specifically on early childhood teacher educators. A survey of the backgrounds of early childhood teacher educators in 2- and 4-year institutions in the United States found little ethnic diversity (most were white) and a mix of academic backgrounds. Of particular note was that 40% of ECE faculty in 2-year diploma programs and more than half in 4-year degree programs did not have a degree specializing in preschool education (Maxwell, Lim, & Early, 2006). In North America and at least some countries in Europe there is a trend toward more structured and academic programs for children (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2001; Russell, 2011), including institutionalized curricula, with corresponding structured programs for preparing educators. This trend builds on a tradition of competing program models in ECE (Goffin & Wilson, 2001), most of which are based on child development theory and provide more or less prescriptive frameworks for practice, encompassing the design and arrangement of the teaching space, the type of materials and resources, the means of planning and assessment, and the manner of social relations. Trends in early childhood education seem to be moving in two directions at once. In an apparent move away from psychological theoretical assumptions about the universality of child development, there is increasing recognition of the validity of local ways of knowing and a greater value placed on linguistic and cultural diversity (Dahlberg, Moss, & Pence, 2007; Vandenbroeck, 2004), as in our Colombian case. At the same time, the legacy of colonialism in countries such as Namibia continues to discourage the inclusion of indigenous knowledge and activities in ECTE programs (Abdi & Cleghorn, 2005; Evans & Cleghorn, 2012; Goduka, 1997; Gonzales, 1999; Serpell, 1993; Shizha, 2006; Swadener, Kabiru, & Njenga, 1997). A comparable situation is found in Canada, where language barriers and a lack of recognition for foreign experience and qualifications (Statistics Canada, 2006) channel many newcomers into work with children that is not seen as professional. In Canada, the percentage of early childhood educators who are immigrants (19%) is higher than for any other occupation sector (Service Canada, 2012). In order for immigrant early childhood educators to be construed as professionals, they must detach themselves from their experiential, tacit, and 14

SETTING THE SCENE

intuitive ways of knowing (Jipson, 1991). Thus the privileged position of western child development knowledge as generally practiced to date leaves no space for teachers to bring in their own understandings of the sociocultural contexts in which they, and the children with whom they work, live (Silin, 1995; Stott & Bowman, 1996). These apparently opposing patterns are thought to impede the establishment of ECTE programs that are broadly effective and locally adapted. ECE programs and their associated educator training are a travelling reform (Steiner-Khamsi, 2006), part of an international movement aimed at addressing social and economic challenges using approaches that are in many cases borrowed from other contexts. In fact, it seems that, despite efforts to recognize local cultures as valuable resources for planning appropriate education programs, it is still the case that teacher education planners are, as Myers (1992) noted, “taking their cues from imported models that reinforce value shifts towards the individualistic, production oriented cultures of the west” (p. 29). In the chapters that follow, as in our study of preschools (Cleghorn & Prochner, 2010), we ask whether this direction is the most desirable for all. METHODOLOGICAL NOTES ON THE THREE CASES

Today, the field of comparative education is particularly concerned with the study of education-related issues worldwide, rather than simply comparing educational systems, as it once did (Kubow & Fossum, 2003). A concern with education issues is relevant whether they are examined cross-culturally or within one country, since teachers and teacher educators are increasingly faced with culturally, linguistically, and racially diverse learners and with complex sociocultural, economic, and political influences on the structure of educational systems and, ultimately on the education of teachers and on practice within the classroom. What more may we tell the reader about the differences in these three countries and the settings of this research, prior to their reading to the last page of this book? Canada ranked 8th, Colombia 98th, and Namibia 127th on the United Nations Human Development Index (United Nations Development Programme, 2014). The primary school dropout rate in Namibia is reported to be 15.54%, similar to that of Colombia, at 15.29%. Canada is not listed among countries with a primary school dropout rate, though we suspect this cannot be perfectly true. And there are differences at the level of teacher preparation programs, where the teachers prepared in each case study will work in different types of early education settings, employing different curricula with children at different ages. There are also differences in prospective teachers: in the Canadian site they are refugee and immigrant women, in Colombia, indigenous community members, and in Namibia, both novice and experienced teachers, many of whom lack formal qualifications. Moreover, there is institutional variation in the location and delivery of the program and the design of the curricula. These differences notwithstanding, the stated aims and objectives for early childhood education of each of the countries were similar, focusing on heath and security, preparing good citizens, and readying

15

CHAPTER 1

children for school, but there were also differences here. Only in the Colombian case was early education aimed at cultural and linguistic revitalization. It is with such diversity in mind that we embarked on this study of teacher education in three very different countries, with an eye to a number of issues that might be pertinent to each. Although our research in the three settings may be considered as three micro-ethnographic case studies, we focused not on the impact of the teacher education program, that is, on the eventual changes in children’s readiness for school, although this is vitally important, but on the content of the program in relation to teachers’ prior knowledge, and, in particular, its relation to indigenous or community ideas of teaching and learning. Our selection of the three case study sites within the countries was convenient though not purposeful in the usual sense of the word. Our previous studies had given us access to sites in Namibia and Canada, while former graduate students from Colombia provided an established relationship to build on. Cleghorn and Prochner also published a Spanish edition of their comparative study of preschool, adding a study of community home ECD centres in Colombia, in 2014. It is important to point out that each site is unique, and none is meant to be typical for the country as a whole. Had we set out to select the research sites randomly, we could not have done better to find very different situations in very different countries in order to explore cross-culturally a number of questions and themes that had emerged from our previous work. In this sense, methodologically, we see these sites as an opportunity to study globalization and the global through “peripheral places and marginal others” (Sidhu, 2006, p. 43). The three sites can be seen as illustrative cases of globalization as a process of developing multiplicities of discourses and practices. Thus, as an overriding question, we asked, “What is local about what goes on here, and what can be seen as having been imported from elsewhere?” In this regard, we ask the same question of the curriculum used in teacher education and of the country’s education policies. Then, moving into the classroom where student teachers are practicing what they have learned, we shift to ask whether or to what extent the teachers’ taken-for-granted and culturally rooted understandings of children guide their actions more fully than the knowledge or even prescriptions for teaching they have recently been taught. How does the curriculum in each program reflect students’ cultural knowledges, beliefs, and understandings of what it means to educate and care for young children? In that regard, does what is determined to be local knowledge hold more weight or have greater meaning than the new knowledge acquired in the teacher education classroom? In each setting we have also asked, What is the vision of the future for the child learner, as contained in policy documents?5 What is the stated purpose of early childhood education and the schooling that is likely to follow? The tension between “insider” and “outsider” perspectives has recently been recognized as central to contemporary comparative and international education (e.g., McNess, Arthur, & Crossley, 2015). The study described here is no –––––––––––––– 5 In our analysis, policy is used in a general way to refer to public policies and regulations along with government-created or -sponsored curricula (e.g., programs of study, curriculum frameworks).

16

SETTING THE SCENE

exception. Our positioning as both insider and outsider in the three contexts of the study provided a methodological challenge. As ethnographers, we were trained to consider emic data as data containing information provided by the participants, in their own words or from their own perspectives, while etic data were understood to contain the researchers’ representations and interpretations of the emic data through the use of conceptual frameworks and theories. Although we understood our task as researchers to entail an understanding of the participants’ view of a phenomenon, we were also conscious of the fact that we, too, held our own perspectives of the phenomenon, and that these perspectives changed as our roles changed in the contexts in which we worked. Other researchers have also found relationships and boundaries between insider and outsider perspectives to be fluid and shifting, influenced by elements in the sociocultural-historical context, and depending mainly on the degree of access to sites, participants, and information (Chawla-Duggan, 2007; Labaree, 2002). However, we consider the degree of access to be more than just being able to collect data from the participants and the sites. In our view, the relationship between insider and outsider perspectives is fundamentally about the encounter with the “other,” which then becomes a relationship between us as the researchers and the “other” as the researched. As Langeveld (1966) wrote, “the encounter with the other always means the encounter with the unknown. The unknown can be easily misperceived” (p. 31). In encountering the “unknown,” the danger for us as researchers is to assume that the other’s worldviews—their ways of being and doing—are fundamentally knowable and therefore fully understandable through what is similar and recognizable as familiar. The danger of such an assumption is that “the initial difference between the self and other, the starting point of self and the knowledge of the other, is effectively erased” (Lippitz, 2007, p. 84). Since, as Waldenfels (2007) states, “distance or inaccessibility constitutes otherness as such” (p. 9), an explained or fully understood other would cease to be other, which in turn would lead to disappearance of self. It is therefore necessary to understand knowledge of the other as a process in which one needs to remain open to the perspectives of the other as a location for questioning one’s own perspectives. We aimed to describe the varied and complex ways in which insider-outsider relationships were embodied in each research context. The circulation and adoption of the North American dominant discourse of ECE in each site, coupled with the residual effects of colonization, complicates efforts to identify indigenous perspectives and how each site presented a case of active cultural reconstitution, not just exchange. In the Canadian site, the participants were newcomers to both the mainstream dominant (Canadian) culture and the (professional) culture of early learning and child care (ELCC). They needed to reconcile their culturally constructed indigenous understandings of adult-child relations, for example, with (outsider/dominant) notions of play-based learning and developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) in the ECTE program. While as researchers we held privileged insider access to the dominant discourse being taught, we were situated as outsiders to the participants’ cultural perspectives on child-rearing. 17

CHAPTER 1

In the case of the Namibian participants, who came from several cultural and linguistic backgrounds, the dominant discourse of ECE continually “got in the way” of drawing out data on their indigenous understandings of practice. In this case we needed to interpret not only the participants’ indigenous perspectives, but also the ways in which the dominant discourse had been reinterpreted in the local context. In Colombia the challenge was reversed: the content of the ECTE program was largely dominated by the indigenous beliefs of the particular community. In that site we worked alongside non-indigenous researchers at a local university whose translations and interpretations of indigenous knowledges in this program were filtered through their own beliefs and assumptions, formed in part through their work in other indigenous communities (see Stapleton, Murphy, & Kildea, 2015). We believe it is imperative to reconceptualize insider-outsider relationships when working alongside international researchers and participants in order to achieve more collaborative, participatory, multivocal, and inclusive research processes (McNess, Arthur, & Crossley, 2015). Throughout our study we were thus concerned with how we might navigate the “spaces between” insider and outsider positioning (Dwyer & Buckle, 2009), and how this space might be experienced and understood as a “fusion of horizons” (Gadamer, 1989) from which new understandings emerge. Such understandings are built not on consensus but rather on a genuine encounter of the other’s worldviews, through which limits are shifted and become transformed in the process of cogeneration. REFERENCES Abdi, A., & Cleghorn, A. (Eds.). (2005). Issues in African education: Sociological perspectives. New York, NY: Palgrave-Macmillan. Altbach, P., & Knight, J. (2007). The internationalization of higher education: Motivations and realities. Journal of Studies in International Education, 11(3), 290–305. Ang, I. (2011). Navigating complexity: From cultural critique to cultural intelligence. Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies, 25(6), 779–794. Austin, T., Willett, J., Gebhard, M., & Montes, L. (2010). Challenges for Latino educators crossing symbolic, cultural, and linguistic boundaries: Coming to voice in teacher preparation with competing voices. Journal of Latinos and Education, 9(4), 262–283. Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). The dialogic imagination (M. Holquist, Ed., C. Emerson & M. Holquist, Trans.). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. Battiste, M. (2011). Curriculum reform through constitutional reconciliation of indigenous knowledge. In D. Stanley & K. Young (Eds.), Contemporary studies in Canadian curriculum, principles, portraits, and practices (pp. 287–312). Calgary, AB: Temeron Books. Benson, C., & Kosonen, K. (Eds.). (2013). Language issues in comparative education: Inclusive teaching and learning in non-dominant languages and cultures. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense. Bourdieu, P., & Passeron, J. C. (1990). Reproduction in education: Society and culture (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Breton-Carbonneau, G., Cleghorn, A., Evans, R., & Pesco, D. (2012). Pedagogical and political encounters in linguistically and culturally diverse primary classrooms: Examples from Quebec, Canada and Gauteng, South Africa. Compare, 4(1), 1–19. Bushnell, M. (2002). Teaching normativity: Moral regulation of the American school teacher. Taboo, 6(1), 41–61.

18

SETTING THE SCENE Cabaroglu, N., & Roberts, J. (2000). Development in student teachers’ pre-existing beliefs during a 1-year PGCE programme. System, 28(3), 387–402. Cavalcanti, M. C. (1996). Collusion, resistance, and reflexivity: Indigenous teacher education in Brazil. Linguistics and Education, 8, 175–188. Chaiklin, S. (2014). A theoretical framework for analysing preschool teaching: A cultural-historical science perspective. Learning, Culture, and Social Interaction, 3, 224–231. Retrieved from: http://psy.ku.dk/bokse_paa_forsiden/learning-culture-and-social-interaction/_first_author__2014_ Learning_-Culture-and-Social-Interaction_224.pdf Chang, M. (2007). Cultural differences in parenting style and their effect on teens’ self-esteem, perceived parental relationship satisfaction, and self-satisfaction (Honours thesis). Retrieved from: http://repository.cmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1084&context=hsshonors Chawla-Duggan, R. (2007). Breaking out, breaking through: Accessing knowledge in a non-western overseas educational setting—methodological issues for an outsider. Compare, 37(2), 185–200. Child Care Human Resources Sector Council. (2009). Pathways to early childhood education credentialing in Canada. Ottawa, ON: Author. Retrieved from: http://www.ccsc-cssge.ca/sites/ default/files/uploads/Projects-Pubs-Docs/2.1PathwaysCred_MainEN.pdf Chisholm, L., & Leyendecker, R. (2008). Curriculum reform in post-1990s sub-Saharan Africa. International Journal of Educational Development, 28(2), 195–205. Choukas, M. (1936, October). The concept of cultural lag re-examined. American Sociological Review, 1(5), 752–760. Cleghorn, A., & Prochner, L. (1997). Early childhood education in Zimbabwe: Recent trends and prospects. Early Education and Development, 8(3), 337–350. Cleghorn, A., & Prochner, L. (2003). Contrasting visions of early childhood education: Examples from rural and urban settings in Zimbabwe and India. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 1(2), 131– 153. Cleghorn, A., & Prochner, L. (2010). Shades of globalization in three early childhood settings: Views from India, South Africa, and Canada. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense. Cleghorn, A., & Prochner, L., with Isaza Merchán, L., & Hoyos Vivas, L. M. (2014). Matices de la globalización en los entornos de primera infancia: Puntos de vista de India, Sudáfrica, Canadá, y Colombia (Shades of globalization in four early childhood settings: Views from India, South Africa, Canada, and Colombia). Bogotá, Colombia: Fundación Centro Internacional de Educación y Desarrollo Humano. Clifford, J. (1988). The predicament of culture: Twentieth-century ethnography, literature, and art. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press. Clifford, J. (1992). Travelling cultures. In L. Grossberg, C. Nelson, & P. Treinch (Eds.), Cultural studies (pp. 97–98). New York, NY: Routledge. Dahlberg, G., & Moss, P. (2005). Ethics and politics in early childhood education. London, England: RoutledgeFalmer. Dahlberg, G., Moss, P., & Pence, A. (2007). Beyond quality in early childhood education and care: Languages of evaluation (2nd ed.). London, England: Falmer. Dwyer, S. C., & Buckle, J. L. (2009). The space between: On being an insider-outsider in qualitative research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 8(1), 54–65. Evans, R., & Cleghorn, A. (2012). Complex classroom encounters: A South African perspective. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense. Ewing, K. P. (1998). Crossing borders and transgressing boundaries: Metaphors or negotiating multiple identities. Ethos, 26(2), 262–267. Fisher, R. L. (2009). Who is a teacher educator? In C. L. Klecka, S. J. Odell, W. R. Houston, & R. Haskell McBee (Eds.), Visions for teacher educators: Perspectives on the Association of Teacher Educators’ standards (pp. 29–44). Lanham, MD: Association of Teacher Educators & Rowman & Littlefield. Freeman, D. (1993). Renaming experience/reconstructing practice: Developing new understandings of teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 9(5/6), 485–497.

19

CHAPTER 1 Gadamer, H. (1989). Truth and method (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Crossroads. Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures: Selected essays. New York, NY: Basic Books. Gibson, M. (2015). “Heroic victims”: Discursive constructions of preservice early childhood teacher professional identities. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 36(2), 142–155. Giddens, A. (1990). The consequences of modernity. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Giroux, H. (1992). Border crossings: Cultural workers and the politics of education. New York, NY: Routledge. Goduka, I. (1997). Rethinking the status of early childhood care and education (ECCE) in rural and urban areas of South Africa. Early Education and Development, 8(3), 307–321. Goffin, S. G., & Wilson, C. (2001). Curriculum models and early childhood education: Appraising the relationship (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice-Hall. Gonzales, M. C. (1999). The World Bank and African primary education: Policies, practices, and recommendations. Africa Today, 46(1), 119–134. Goodlad, J. I. (1990). Connecting the past to the present. In J. I. Goodlad, R. Soder, & K. A. Sirotnik (Eds.), Places where teachers are taught (pp. 3–39). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Gordon, A. M., & Browne, K. W. (2014). Beginnings and beyond: Foundations in early childhood education (9th ed.). Independence, KY: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Graziano, A. M., & Katz, J. N. (1982). Training paraprofessionals. In A. S. Bellack, M. Hersen, & A. E. Kazdin (Eds.), International handbook of behavior modification and therapy (pp. 207–230). New York, NY: Plenum. Gutierrez, K. D., Larson, J., & Kreuter, B. (1995). Cultural tensions in the scripted classroom: The value of the subjugated perspective. Urban Education, 29(4), 410–442. doi: 10.1177/0042085995029004004. Gupta, A. (2008). Tracing global-local transitions within early childhood curriculum and practice in India. Research in Comparative and International Education, 3(3), 266–280. Hall, S. (1996). Cultural identity and cinematic representation. In H. A. Baker, M. Diawara, & R. H. Lindeborg (Eds.), Black British cultural identity: A reader. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Halpern, R. (1995). Rebuilding the inner city: A history of neighborhood initiatives to address poverty in the United States. New York, NY: Colombia University Press. Hartman, G. (1997). The fateful question of culture. Boston, MA: South End Press. Hasson, S., & Gonen, A. (1997). The cultural tension within Jerusalem’s Jewish population. Jerusalem, Israel: Floersheimer Institute for Policies. Hay, C., & Smith, N. (2005). Horses for courses? The political discourse of globalization and European integration in the UK and Ireland. West European Politics, 28(1), 124–158. Heath, S. B. (1983). Ways with words: Language life and work in communities and classrooms. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Helfrich, H. (1999, June). Beyond the dilemma of cross-cultural psychology: Resolving the tension between etic and emic approaches. Culture and Psychology, 5(2), 131–153. Herman, A. P. (1937). An answer to criticisms of the lag concept. American Journal of Sociology, 43(3), 440–451. Jansen, J., & Christie, P. (1999). The changing curriculum: Studies in outcomes-based education in South Africa. Cape Town, South Africa: Juta Academic. Jegede, O. J., & Aikenhead, G. S. (1999). Transcending cultural borders: Implications for science teaching. Journal for Science and Technology Education, 17, 45–66. Jipson, J. (1991). Developmentally appropriate practice: Culture, curriculum, connections. Early Education and Development, 2(2), 120–136. Jones, P. W. (2004). The United Nations and education: Multilateralism, development, and globalization. New York, NY: Routledge/Falmer. Kâgitçibasi, Ç. (2007). Family, self, and human development across cultures: Theory and applications (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

20

SETTING THE SCENE Kahn, M. S., & Kelly, K. J. (2001). Cultural tensions in psychiatric nursing: Managing the interface between western mental health care and Xhosa traditional healing in South Africa. Transcultural Psychiatry, 38(1), 35–50. doi: 10.1177/136346150103800104 Kanu, Y. (2005). Tensions and dilemmas of cross-cultural transfer of knowledge: Post-structural/ postcolonial reflections on an innovative teacher education in Pakistan. International Journal of Educational Development, 25, 493–513. doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2005.01.002 Kirk, D. (2004). Beyond the “academic” curriculum: The production and operation of biopower in the less-studied sites of schooling. In B. M. Baker & K. E. Heyning (Eds.), Dangerous coalitions? The uses of Foucault in the study of education (pp. 117–135). New York, NY: Peter Lang. Kirova, A. (2010). Children’s representations of cultural scripts in play: Facilitating transition from home to preschool in an intercultural early learning program for refugee children. Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education: An International Journal, 4(2), 1–18. Kondo, T. (2004). Cultural tensions in occupational therapy practice: Considerations from a Japanese vantage point. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 58(2), 174–184. Korthagen, F. A. J., Loughran, J., & Lunenberg, M. (2005). Teaching teachers: Studies into the expertise of teacher educators. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21(2), 107–115. Kristeva, J. (1986). The Kristeva reader (Toril Moi, Ed.). Oxford, England: Basil Blackwell. Kubow, P. K., & Fossum, P. R. (2003). Comparative education: Exploring issues in international context. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall. La Paro, K. M., Siepak, K., & Scott-Little, C. (2009). Assessing beliefs of preservice early childhood education teachers using Q-Sort methodology. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 30, 22–36. Labaree, R. V. (2002). The risk of “going observationalist”: Negotiating the hidden dilemmas of being an insider participant observer. Qualitative Research, 2(1), 7–122. Langeveld, M. J. (1966). Die Schule als Weg des Kindes (3rd ed.). Braunschweig, Germany: Georg Westerman. Lee, E. K. (2013). Cultural tensions and career development for Asian American college students: A phenomenological study (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from: http://search.proquest.com/ docview/1448594527 LeVine, R. A. (2003). Childhood socialization: Comparative studies of parenting, learning, and educational change. Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Center, University of Hong Kong. LeVine, R. A., Dixon, S., LeVine, S., Richman, A., Leiderman, P. H., Keefer, C. H., & Brazelton, T. B. (1994). Child care and culture: Lessons from Africa. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Lippitz, W. (2007). Foreignness and otherness in pedagogical contexts. Phenomenology and Practice, 1(1), 76–96. Lubeck, S. (1996). Deconstructing “child development knowledge” and “teacher preparation.” Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 11, 147–167. Lunenburg, M., Korthagen, F., & Swennen, A. (2007). The teacher educator as role model. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23, 586–601. Marfo, K. (2011). Envisioning an African child development field. Child Development Perspectives, 5, 140–147. Massing, C. (2015). Authoring professional identities: Immigrant and refugee women’s experiences in an early childhood teacher education program. Canadian Children, 40(1), 73–99. Maxwell, K. L., Lim, C. I., & Early, D. M. (2006). Early childhood teacher preparation programs in the United States: National report. Chapel Hill, NC: Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina. Retrieved from: http://fpg.unc.edu/sites/fpg.unc.edu/files/ resources/reports-and-policy-briefs/NPC_National_Report_2006.pdf McGrew, A. G., & Lewis, P. G. (1992). Global politics: Globalization and the nation state. Cambridge, MA: Polity Press.

21

CHAPTER 1 McNess, E., Arthur, L., & Crossley, M. (2015). “Ethnographic dazzle” and the construction of the “Other”: Revisiting dimensions of insider and outsider research for international and comparative education. Compare, 45(2), 295–316. doi: 10.1080/03057925.2013.854616 Mistry, J., Chaudhuri, J. H., & Diez, V. (2003). Ethnotheories of parenting. In R. M. Lerner, F. Jacobs, and D. Werlieb (Eds.), Handbook of applied developmental science (Vol. 1; pp. 233–258). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Morris, S., McLeod, K., & Danesi, M. (1993). Languages and learning: Aboriginal and heritage language education in Canada. Oakville, ON: Mosaic. Moss, P., & Petrie, P. (2002). From children’s spaces to children’s services: Public policy, children, and childhood. London, England: Taylor & Francis e-Library. Mwaura, P. A. M. (2008). Evaluating the Madras preschool programme in East Africa: A quasiexperimental study. International Journal of Early Years Education, 16(3), 237–255. Myers, R. G. (1992). The twelve who survive: Strengthening programmes of early development in the third world. New York, NY: Routledge in cooperation with UNESCO for the Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development. Retrieved from: http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/ PNABN486.pdf Nasir, N. S., & Saxe, G. B. (2003). Ethnic and academic identities: A cultural practice perspective on emerging tensions and their management in the lives of minority students. Educational Researcher, 32(5), 14–18. Nieto, S. (2008). Culture and education. Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, 107(1), 127–142. Noel, J. (2013). Moving teacher education into urban schools and communities: Prioritizing community strengths. New York, NY: Routledge. Nsamenang, B. (2004). Cultures of human development and education: Challenge to growing up African. New York, NY: Nova Science. Nsamenang, B. (2007). A critical peek at early childhood care and education in Africa. Child Health and Education, 1(1), 1–12. Nsamenang, B., & Tchombe, T. M. S. (2011). Handbook of African educational theories and practices: A generative teacher education curriculum. Bamenda, Cameroon: Human Development Research Center. Ogburn, W. F. (1922). Social change with respect to culture and original nature. New York, NY: B. W. Huebsch. Olneck, M. (1990). The recurring dream: Symbolism and ideology in intercultural and multicultural education. American Journal of Education, 98, 147–174. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2001). Starting strong: Early childhood education and care. Paris, France: Author. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2006). Starting strong II: Early childhood education and care. Paris, France: Author. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2012). Starting strong III: A quality toolbox for early childhood education and care. Paris, France: Author. O’Sullivan, M. C. (2004). The reconceptualization of learner-centered approaches: A Namibian case study. International Journal of Educational Development, 24(6), 585–592. Pence, A., & Marfo, K. (2008). Early childhood development in Africa: Interrogating constraints of prevailing knowledge bases. International Journal of Psychology, 43(2), 78–87. doi: 10.1080%2F00207590701859143 Pepper, G. L., & Larson, G. S. (2006). Cultural identity tensions in a post-acquisition organization. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 34(1), 49–71. doi:10.1080/00909880500420267 Prochner, L. (2002). Preschool and playway in India. Childhood, 9(4), 435–453. Rose, E. (2010). The promise of preschool: From Head Start to universal pre-kindergarten. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Russell, J. L. (2011). From child’s garden to academic press: The role of shifting institutional logics in redefining kindergarten education. American Educational Research Journal, 48(2), 236–267.

22

SETTING THE SCENE Schweisfurth, M. (2011). Learner-centered education in developing country contexts: From solution to problem? International Journal of Educational Development, 31, 425–432. Schweisfurth, M. (2013). Learner-centered education in international perspective: Whose pedagogy for whose development? London, England: Routledge. Sealander, J. (2003). The failed century of the child: Governing America’s young in the twentieth century. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Sendan, F., & Roberts, J. (1998). Orhan: A case study in the development of a student teacher’s personal theories. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 4, 229–244. Serpell, R. (1993). The significance of schooling: Life journeys in an African society. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Serpell, R. (2011). Social responsibility as a dimension of intelligence, and as an education goal: Insights from programmatic research in an African society. Child Development Perspectives, 5(2), 126–133. Service Canada. (2012). Early childhood educators and assistants. Retrieved from: http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/qc/job_futures/statistics/4214.shtml Shi-Xu. (2001). Critical pedagogy and intercultural communication: Creating discourses of diversity, equality, common goals, and rational-moral motivation. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 22(3), 279– 293. doi: 10.1080/07256860120094000 Shizha, E. (2006). Legitimizing indigenous knowledge in Zimbabwe: A theoretical analysis of postcolonial school knowledge and its colonial legacy. Journal of Contemporary Issues in Education, 1(1), 20–35. Shumba, O. (1999). Critically interrogating the rationality of western science vis-à-vis scientific literacy in non-western developing countries. Zambezia, 26(1), 55–75. Sidhu, R. (2006). Universities and globalization: To market, to market. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Silin, J. (1995). Sex, death, and the education of children: Our passion for ignorance in the age of AIDS. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Simpson, B. (2000). Regulation and resistance: Children’s embodiment during the primary-secondary school transition. In A. Prout (Ed.), The body, childhood, and society (pp. 60–77). London, England: Macmillan. Simpson, D. J., Jackson, M. J. B., & Aycock, J. C. (2008). John Dewey and the art of teaching: Toward reflective and imaginative practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Soler, J., & Miller, L. (2003). The struggle for early childhood curricula: A comparison of the English foundation stage curriculum Te Whäriki and Reggio Emilia. International Journal of Early Years Education, 11(1), 57–68. Stables, A. (2008). Childhood and the philosophy of education. New York, NY: Continuum. Stapleton, H. M., Murphy, R., & Kildea, S. V. (2015). Insiders as outsiders: Bicultural research assistants describe their participation in the evaluation of an antenatal clinic for women from refugee backgrounds. Qualitative Social Work, 14(2), 275–292. Statistics Canada. (2006). Immigration in Canada: A portrait of the foreign-born population. 2006 census findings. Retrieved from: http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/as-sa/97-557/ index-eng.cfm Steiner-Khamsi, G. (2006). Educational import: Local encounters with global forces in Mongolia. New York, NY: Palgrave. Stenberg, K., Karlsson, L., Pitkaniemi, H., & Maaranen, K. (2014). Beginning student teachers’ teacher identities based on their practical theories. European Journal of Teacher Education, 37(2), 204–219. Stott, F., & Bowman, B. (1996). Child development knowledge: A slippery base for practice. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 11, 169–183. Super, C. M., & Harkness, S. (2008). Globalization and its discontents: Challenges to developmental theory and practice in Africa. International Journal of Psychology, 43(2), 107–113.

23

CHAPTER 1 Swadener, E. B., Kabiru, M., & Njenga, A. (1997). Does the village still raise the child? A collaborative study of changing child-rearing and community mobilization in Kenya. Early Education and Development, 8(3), 285–306. Swiniarski, L. (2014). The evolution of universal preschool education in a global age. In L. Swiniarski (Ed.), World class initiatives and practices in early education: Moving forward in a global age (pp. 3–20). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. Tarry, E. (2011). Is west really best? Social and cultural tensions international students experience having studied at British universities. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 35(1), 69–87. Retrieved from: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cjfh20 Tatto, M. T. (1998). The influence of teacher education on teachers’ beliefs about purposes of education, roles, and practice. Journal of Teacher Education, 49(1), 66–77. Taylor, A. (2013). Reconfiguring the natures of childhood. New York, NY: Routledge. Tollefson, J. W., & Tsui, A. B. M. (2004). Contexts of medium-of-instruction policy. In J. W. Tollefson & A. B. M. Tsui (Eds.), Medium of instruction policies: Which agenda? Whose agenda? (pp. 283– 294). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). (1963). Children of the developing countries: A report. Cleveland, OH: World Publishing Co. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). (2015). The state of the world’s children 2015: Reimagine the future. New York, NY: UNICEF. Retrieved from: http://www.unicef.org/publications/files/ SOWC_2015_Summary_and_Tables.pdf United Nations Development Programme. (2014). Human development report 2014. New York, NY: Author. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (2000). The Dakar Framework for Action. Paris, France: Author. Vandenbroeck, M. (2004). Reclaiming the children: Challenging early childhood’s educational constructions. In S. Dignan & S. Reijnhart (Eds.), Diversity and equity in early childhood training in Europe (pp. 14–20). DECET Network. Waldenfels, B. (2007). The question of the other. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. Whitebook, M., Austin, L. J. E., Ryan, S., Kipnis, F., Almaraz, M., & Sakai, L. (2012). By default or by design? Variations in higher education programs for early care and teachers and their implications for research methodology, policy, and practice. Berkeley, CA: Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved from: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ ED543247.pdf Wolf, M. (2014). Shaping globalization. Finance and Development, 51(3), 22–25. Wong-Fillmore, L. (1991). When learning a second language means losing the first. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 6, 323–346. Yan, M. C. (2008). Exploring cultural tensions in cross-cultural social work practice. Social Work, 53(4), 317–328. Zigler, E., Gilliam, W. S., & Jones, S. M. (Eds.). (2006). A vision for universal preschool education. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

24

CHAPTER 2

CANADA A Bridging Program

INTRODUCTION

Canada is a major player in the process of globalization, and its role in the early childhood teacher education (ECTE) field can be seen as one of spreading dominant ideas and practices from the global north / minority world to the global south / majority world, thus increasing tensions with local practices within ECTE programs in contexts such as Colombia and Namibia. While this is the case at a global level, at national and provincial levels Canadian educational institutions— from early childhood to higher education—are seen as having the obligation to provide continuity and content to the ongoing dialogue about the nature of multiculturalism and the management of diversity. Thus, educational reforms in Canada are often identified as initiatives for integrating immigrants into majoritylanguage institutions (Kymlicka, 2001). The expectation is that multicultural education policies and practices will result in the equal participation of all students in education and thus allow for equal participation in the public and economic spheres. However, as Ghosh and Abdi (2004) point out, multicultural and intercultural education initiatives only theoretically give access to all ethnocultural groups and have not resulted in equal participation in either educational or economic spheres. A major problem of the implementation of Canadian multicultural education is that the multiculturalism clause of the federal multicultural policy for education “is vague” (Ghosh & Abdi, 2004, p. 45), and the “lack of federal control over education, and provincial legislation in general, has limited federal ability to influence education in this direction to any meaningful degree” (p. 45). Because education is a provincial responsibility in Canada, the federal multiculturalism policy is interpreted differently by the provincial educational authorities and is translated into varying forms of educational policies. This chapter is divided into three main parts. Following a brief introduction to the country context focusing on demographics, Part 1 provides an overview of the policy context of early childhood education in Canada, with attention to specific similarities and differences among the ten provinces and three territories. Next, Part 2 describes the research findings focused on a bridging program for newcomer early childhood teacher educators piloted in the province of Alberta. Part 3 considers the implications of these findings for ECTE, with attention given to tensions between the students’ cultural knowledge and professional knowledge in the field of early learning and child care (ELCC).

25

CHAPTER 2

Figure 2.1. Map of Canada. From: http://www.istockphoto.com/vector/canada-political-map-gm47463162865008625?st=bce8957 (labelled for commercial reuse)

Canada, a country of about 10 million square kilometres located in the northern part of North America, is the second-largest country in the world by area, after Russia. It borders on three oceans—Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic—and shares its northwestern and southern borders with the United States. As a political entity, Canada was created through colonization and westward expansion from the 17th to 20th centuries. On July 1, 1867, several former British colonies were united as the Dominion of Canada, and the country achieved its current form with the incorporation of the former British dominion of Newfoundland (now the province of Newfoundland and Labrador) in 1949 and the creation of the territory of Nunavut (which separated from Northwest Territories) in 1999. The history of human settlement in Canada reveals that Aboriginal people—the First Peoples of Canada—lived on the continent for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans. The population of Aboriginal people at the time of European contact is estimated to have been 500,000 (Government of Canada, 1996). The communities lived according to their own social and cultural traditions and 26

CANADA

belonged to diverse language and cultural groups. European explorers and colonizers began arriving in the 17th century. By 1850 the settler population had grown to about 1.3 million people (Statistics Canada, 2012b). From 1850 to 1900, the population increased at a slow and steady rate, but a change in immigration policy led to a doubling of the population between 1901 and 1911. During this decade, 1.2 million immigrants arrived, with many settling in the west (Statistics Canada, 2012b). Apart from this 10-year spike, however, natural increase was the main source of population growth. A restrictive immigration policy along with a low birth rate limited Canada’s population growth and triggered changes to its race-based immigration rules in the early 1960s (Peach, 1995), which occurred in tandem with studies of social stratification in Canada based on race, ethnicity, and social class (Porter, 2015). Following these changes, non-white immigration increased. Prior to the 1970s, 96% of Canadians were of European ancestry, mostly of British or French origin (Li, 2000). In 1971, multiculturalism policy was introduced, motivated by the changing demographics and by political expediency. Subsequently, Canada’s Multiculturalism Act (Government of Canada, 1985) was formed, in part to recognize “the cultural and racial diversity of Canadian society” (section 3.1). Currently, half of Canadians have non-British and non-French origins. In 2015, Canada’s population was estimated to be 35,851,800 (Statistics Canada, 2015). With a growth rate of 1.238% due mainly to immigration and a population density of 4 people per square kilometre, Canada is one of the least densely populated countries in the world (World Bank, 2016). Immigrant and refugee families form a substantial and growing portion of Canada’s population. Approximately 41% of Canadians are first- or secondgeneration immigrants and 20% of Canadian residents in the 2000s were born outside the country (Government of Canada, 2008). Overall, 19.1% of the population is from a visible minority group, but in two of the country’s three largest cities, Toronto and Vancouver, this percentage rises to nearly half (Statistics Canada, 2013b). The population by visible minority varies widely across the provinces: 2.3% in New Brunswick, 18.4% in Alberta, and 25% in Ontario (Statistics Canada, 2013b). Statistics Canada (2010) predicts that the ethnocultural diversity of Canada’s population will increase dramatically: by 2031, 29 to 32% of the population is projected to be from a visible minority group, and 25 to 28% of the population may be foreign born. According to the 2011 Canadian census, First Nations peoples make up 4.3% of the population, thus further enhancing the country’s diversity (Statistics Canada, 2013a). Canada’s official languages are English and French. One or the other is spoken by 80% of the population as a mother tongue, and 17.5% of Canadians consider themselves bilingual in English and French. Canadians speak more than 200 other languages at home, and 17.5% use more than one language at home. Languages other than French or English are more often spoken at home in large urban centres; the most common are Arabic and Spanish in Montreal and Cantonese and Punjabi in Toronto (Statistics Canada, 2012a).

27

CHAPTER 2

The age distribution of Canadians shows an aging population: half the population is over 40, with higher median ages in Newfoundland and Labrador and lower median ages in Alberta and Nunavut (Statistics Canada, 2015). Twenty-eight percent of Aboriginal people are under the age of 14 (Statistics Canada, 2013a), whereas 16% of the overall population are under 14. Among Canadians overall, the age group with the greatest increase over the past three decades was 85 years and older (Statistics Canada, 2015). PART 1 POLICY CONTEXT

In Canada, regulated ECE services are under the purview of the public education system (as in kindergarten, prekindergarten or junior kindergarten, and other school-based early learning programs) or of the provincial child care legislation (regulated child care centres, preschools, family child care, or school-age care; Doherty, Friendly, & Beach, 2003). While there are national policy frameworks, such as occupational standards, their use is voluntary because child care is regulated through laws developed in each province and territory.1 In 2010 there was a regulated child care space for 19.9% of all children in Canada 12 years of age and younger, and full- or part-time centre-based child care spaces for 21.8% of all children 5 and younger (Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, 2010). Acts provide a general legislative structure for child care programs, while regulations decree the specific rules pertaining to the act, forming “a baseline below which it is unlawful to operate” (Jacobs & Adrien, 2012, p. 110). The legislation is sometimes augmented by a more detailed description of practice, as in Alberta’s accreditation standards (Government of Alberta, 2013), Manitoba’s best practices document (Government of Manitoba, 2005), or the early childhood development framework in the Northwest Territories. In recent years, just over half of the provinces and territories (AB, BC, MB, NB, ON, PE, SK, QC2) have developed a curriculum framework to guide early childhood practice. The Alberta framework goals (Makovichuk, Hewes, Lirette, & Thomas, 2014) were borrowed from New Brunswick (Government of New Brunswick, 2008), though the extensive explanations and examples were developed locally. Some of these frameworks have been mandated for use in programs and others are used only as guides.3 As Langford (2012) notes, the curriculum frameworks are not inscribed with prescriptive, universal outcomes, but rather are more holistic, flexible, and –––––––––––––– 1 Nunavut uses the legislation from the Northwest Territories. 2 References to provinces in parentheses use abbreviations: Alberta (AB), British Columbia (BC), Manitoba (MB), Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), Nova Scotia (NS), Northwest Territories (NT), Nunavut (NU), Ontario (ON), Prince Edward Island (PE), Quebec (QC), Saskatchewan (SK), Yukon (YT). 3 Neither Nova Scotia nor Newfoundland and Labrador have curriculum frameworks yet, nor do any of the territories. McCuaig (2014) has synthesized information about the construction and content of many of the existing frameworks.

28

CANADA

adaptive. These various documents will be reviewed as they pertain to each topic and, within each section, the regulations or legislation will be analyzed first, followed by the curriculum frameworks and other related policy documents. 4 Theories of Development and Learning While regulations do not cite specific theories or theorists, the curriculum frameworks were informed by multiple theories. To varying degrees, most curriculum documents situate development within a social constructivist or sociocultural theoretical perspective. The Ontario framework, for example, states: “Learning is fundamentally social and takes place within children’s cultural contexts” (Government of Ontario, 2007, p. 14). Similarly, in the Alberta curriculum document, learning is seen “as a context-dependent, socially mediated process that results in development” (Makovichuk et al., 2014, p. 75). Quebec and Prince Edward Island draw on Bronfenbrenner’s (1979b) ecological theory, while in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and New Brunswick, the frameworks refer, either explicitly or implicitly, to Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of learning. The British Columbia and Quebec frameworks also refer to attachment theory to emphasize the importance of children having a secure foundation on which to explore the world. While the language of developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) is dominant in the Manitoba curriculum document, it actually only cites neurodevelopmental research to bolster the case for quality experiences and environments for children in the early years. The British Columbia and Ontario frameworks likewise do so. Observation and documentation—through learning stories, observational records, portfolios, or the creation of documentation panels—of children’s learning are the primary developmental assessment tools, with a number of documents offering questions or developmental indicators to guide observations. However, a few of the frameworks urge educators to also use assessment tools such as the Early Learning Scale (PE), Valuing Early Learning and Child Care in Action: A Collaborative Assessment Tool (NB), and Nipissing District Developmental Screen (ON). While most frameworks view development through a social constructivist lens, none cite the work of cross-cultural psychologists, but rather seem to rely on western child development theories, if any. Language development is one notable exception: the Saskatchewan and Ontario curriculum documents both reference research studies on additional language learning. Still, most frameworks indirectly allow for possible variations in each child’s development by attending to influences of the sociocultural context.

–––––––––––––– 4 In this chapter, legislation is referred to as regulations or legislation. Curriculum documents are referred to as frameworks, curriculum frameworks, or curriculum documents.

29

CHAPTER 2

Image of the Child Multiple images of the child are presented within the various policy documents. Legislation across the provinces and territories has an overarching emphasis on regulations aimed at protecting the health, safety, and well-being of children, thus advancing the image of the child as in need of protection. Supervision, physical environment, nutrition, equipment, staff ratios, emergencies/injuries, and record keeping are commonly legislated in child care settings. However, consistent with the image of the child as biologically determined (Dahlberg, Moss, & Pence, 2007), the majority of regulations also contain references to “age appropriateness,” “developmental appropriateness,” or the “developmental needs” of children, and these terms are related to practices, programming, furnishings, and equipment. In terms of the curriculum frameworks, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Quebec have a particularly strong developmental focus, and the Quebec document even contains an “ages and stages” guide. Instead of advancing age-related milestones, the Ontario framework presents developmental outcomes along a continuum, while the Saskatchewan document simply refers to developmental domains (including spiritual development). Frameworks inspired by Reggio Emilia adhere to the image of the child as “capable and full of potential” (BC), “competent, capable” (SK), “mighty learner and citizen—strong, resourceful, and capable” (AB), “competent, curious, motivated learners” (MB), and “curious and communicative individuals in their own right” (NB). Consistent with this view, these frameworks posit the child as an active learner who constructs understandings of the world alongside others. The influence of the United Nations (1989) Convention on the Rights of the Child is reflected in half of the frameworks, which consider children as having rights or, in the case of New Brunswick, as “young citizens.” Best Practices Child care legislation is primarily intended to protect children, therefore references to practice are frequently presented as a fairly uniform series of health- and safetyrelated strictures that must be adopted by the educator.5 Routines such as nutrition and mealtime practices, diapering and toileting procedures, and sleeping arrangements and procedures are standard features in most regulations. The physical environment is regulated in terms of the amount of play space that is to be provided per child; the condition of furnishings, play materials, and equipment; as well as sanitation, lighting, and ventilation. About half of the jurisdictions specify that the play materials and/or activities planned for the children need to be “developmentally appropriate” in terms of the children’s ages, but only the regulations in the three northern territories stipulate that these also be “culturally appropriate.” Finally, many regulations discuss inappropriate disciplinary approaches. –––––––––––––– 5 Provinces with a mandatory curriculum, such as Ontario, seem to have fewer regulations.

30

CANADA

In all of the curriculum frameworks, play is privileged as the dominant mode of children’s expression and learning. Within a constructivist view of learning, children’s playful explorations are seen to contribute to their holistic development. The frameworks do not, for the most part, acknowledge how views of play might vary across different cultures, though children are sometimes seen as learning about their cultures through play activities (e.g., BC, SK). The New Brunswick framework conceives of play as a space for children to enact and reshape culture experiences and “invent their own cultural forms and symbols” (Government of New Brunswick, 2008, Part 2, p. 32). This framework is unique in proposing that the values, expectations, and role of play vary cross-culturally. Educators are generally urged to provide responsive, beautiful, flexible, healthy, and safe environments and materials for children to support their explorations. During play, the educator is to be involved in ways such as observing the children, providing supports and scaffolding, extending their learning, and providing encouragement. Several of the frameworks propose curriculum areas or goals. New Brunswick and Alberta nest these within four main goals—well-being and belonging, play and playfulness, communication and literacies, and diversity and social responsibility—and British Columbia has nearly identical goals.6 Quebec, Ontario, and Saskatchewan derive learning goals from a broad range of developmental accomplishments (Langford, 2012), and the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education has augmented this curriculum with a separate “essential learning experiences” document. School Readiness The topic of school readiness is excluded from the licensing regulations and is given scant mention, if any, in curriculum frameworks. On one end of the spectrum, a range of literacy, numeracy, fine and gross motor, and social skills are seen as necessary for children to possess before they enter school (e.g., QC). The importance of early learning in terms of preparing children for school success is implied in both the curriculum framework from Ontario and the Northwest Territories guiding framework in that children might potentially be “vulnerable” (ON) or “behind in their development” (NT) when starting school without such experiences. Similarly, in British Columbia, “rich early learning experiences” are seen as the foundation of success in kindergarten (Government of British Columbia, 2008, p. 8). There has also been an attempt to align the Ontario and British Columbia frameworks with school curriculum documents to ease children’s transition to school. On the other end of the spectrum, the framework in Manitoba urges educators to program for the child’s current developmental level, not an expected level at the time of school entry. The Alberta curriculum document simply advocates maintaining continuity between early learning and school settings, positioning children as competent learners rather than as individuals who –––––––––––––– 6 Well-being and belonging, exploration and creativity, language and literacies, and social responsibility and diversity.

31

CHAPTER 2

are “getting ready to learn” in school (Makovichuk et al., 2014, p. 81). A New Brunswick early childhood policy document cautions against “schoolification” (Government of New Brunswick, 2012, p. 5). The other provincial documents do not address school readiness. Early Socialization and Home–Program Relations Licensing regulations for early childhood care in Canada simply prescribe specific instances where there is to be communication with families. Some examples from across the provinces and territories include injuries or illness, asking permission when taking the child off site, asking permission for a research project or the collection of visual data, seeking approval to administer medication, including parents on the board of directors, and posting or communicating relevant information for families (e.g., program, menus, policies, child’s experiences). Curriculum frameworks and related policy documents engage further with the complexities of the relationships between home and the ECE program. Overwhelming, the frameworks recognize families as “primary caregivers” (BC), “the child’s first educators,” or “experts” (MB) “who know their children in ways no one else can” (Makovichuk et al., 2014, p. 29). Involving or engaging families is seen as paramount in most documents, with suggestions such as inviting them onto the board, making them feel comfortable, having an open-door policy or open communication, asking questions, or inviting sharing. The relationship between educators and families is characterized as one of mutual respect or trust, or, in some cases, as a partnership wherein the educators learn from families. In half of the frameworks, such a relationship is central to demonstrating respect for the child’s social and cultural values and practices in their home and community. As explained in the Alberta curriculum framework, “the educator demonstrates care, respect, honour, sharing, and thoughtful listening to gain knowledge and appreciation of family, social, and cultural practices and traditions” (Makovichuk et al., 2014, p. 29). Some of the documents, including the curriculum framework from Ontario and an early childhood policy document from the Northwest Territories, state that some families may experience difficult circumstances that impact their ability to provide an optimal environment to support the child’s development and learning. Although most provinces discuss supporting families, the Ontario framework is particularly attentive to the need to offer supports to immigrant and refugee families—connecting them to community resources and to families from the same cultural or linguistic backgrounds—as well as to use crosscultural communication skills.7 In contrast, the Quebec framework seems to conceptualize the ECE program as a place where children are socialized into the dominant society “by supporting their progressive adaptation to life in the community and their gradual and harmonious adoption of the culture, values, norms, and rules of Quebec society” (Government of Quebec, 2007, p. 8). –––––––––––––– 7 The Prince Edward Island document likewise mentions the need to assist newcomers in building connections.

32

CANADA

Indigenous Knowledges and the Local Cultural and Linguistic Context All provincial and territorial licensing regulations in Canada exhibit an overarching concern with a universalized notion of how to ensure the health and safety of children. With only a few exceptions, local, indigenous ways of knowing and working with young children are excluded from legislation. The Yukon Child Care Act acknowledges that land claims or self-government agreements between a Yukon First Nation and either level of government supersede the regulations in the Act, thus localized practices are paramount. The Act states that one objective is to “recognize and support the aspirations of Yukon First Nations to promote and provide culturally appropriate childcare services” (Yukon Legislative Assembly, 2002, p. 1), while the program regulation ensures “culturally appropriate, safe care” (Yukon Legislative Assembly, 1995, p. 6). Similarly, the new Ontario legislation advances the notion that it is in the provincial interest to have early childhood programs and services that respect “equity, inclusiveness, and diversity in communities and the particular qualities of … Aboriginal, First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities” (Ontario Legislative Assembly, 2014, 49.1). References are made to local First Nations authorities throughout the Act and to supporting the cultural and linguistic needs of these communities. The Yukon and British Columbia regulations stipulate that children have access to foods from their cultures. Other documents, such as Manitoba’s, do not attend to the diversity of the population and scarcely mention First Nations peoples even though members of these groups form almost 17% of the population. Overall, then, First Nations peoples are given scant attention in the legislation, and none of these documents mentions immigrant or refugee groups. Curriculum frameworks and other documents guiding practice in each province or territory are more attentive to the local contexts of practice in the children’s own communities. The New Brunswick framework, for example, states that curriculum must “embrace rural and urban lifeways by creating spaces for the inclusion of local knowledge, a sense of place, and the discussion of differences” and underscores the importance of transmitting “cultural knowledge” (Government of New Brunswick, 2007, pp. 7–9). Additionally, the Alberta curriculum document accentuates that intercultural competence relies on the “acknowledgement that there are many ways of doing, being, living, and learning” (Makovichuk et al., 2014, p. 25). Only in the Northwest Territories policy framework for ECE are indigenous knowledges directly acknowledged in relation to First Nations elders who are positioned as the “knowledge keepers” in their communities and central figures in ECE practice (Government of Northwest Territories, 2013a, p. 23). Only a few of these provincial documents provide context for demography of the local population by explicitly mentioning immigrants, refugees, or newcomers, as exemplified in the British Columbia curriculum: B.C. is also home to people from many different parts of the world—some are new to B.C., while others have lived here for generations. These diverse peoples with their distinct histories and contexts contribute to the rich social fabric of this province, offering young children the chance to experience the 33

CHAPTER 2

cultural, ethnic, and linguistic diversity that is part of today’s world, and to develop the skills, attitudes, and dispositions that promote social equity and justice. (Government of British Columbia, 2008, p. 6) While only a few of the frameworks explicitly mention newcomers, the documents articulate the necessity of building children’s respect for, or appreciation of, diversity, and some also emphasize that equity and inclusion are essential. Furthermore, in nearly all of the provinces, attending to diversity is perceived as a means of enhancing children’s own sense of belongingness and well-being while contributing to their positive identity construction. In terms of practice, though, more often the frameworks seem to simply extend the “fun, food, and fashion” approach to diversity by suggesting that programs include a range of play materials, photos, books, foods, artifacts, stories, artistic forms, music, and celebrations. The Ontario curriculum document recommends collecting substantive information from families in order to develop approaches and strategies, while the Prince Edward Island document notes that cultures vary in their conceptions of time, transitions, and schedules. Very few frameworks offer concrete examples to assist educators who work with culturally diverse children and families, though the Saskatchewan and Ontario frameworks identify ways to incorporate and affirm home languages in programs and support dual language learners. Only the Ontario framework provides ample illustrative examples, in the form of scenarios. Therefore, the curriculum documents reflect the complexities inherent in incorporating multiple languages, knowledges, values, and beliefs into early childhood practice. Early Childhood Certification and Educational Preparation Canada is among the countries in which early childhood educators working with children below kindergarten age are not required to be certificated teachers. The educational qualifications of educators working in non-school settings—generally child care—vary from province to province, including entry-level (short courses), certificates (one year), and diplomas (two years). The certification requirements for early childhood educators are generally outlined on government websites and summarized in legislation, and they vary widely across the provinces and territories. The minimum age requirement varies from 16 in Nova Scotia to 19 in the Northwest Territories. Due to the remoteness of many of the communities in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, these two territories have no mandated training requirements. Many jurisdictions in Canada have an entry level of certification that generally requires some form of an orientation course; Saskatchewan, uniquely, has a three-course (120-hour) minimum standard. Across the country there are usually two or three ascending levels of certification depending on one’s years of ECE preparation: one-year certificate, diploma, or, in some provinces, there is a level designated for degree holders. In Alberta, where the study took place, the government has delineated three levels of qualification (Government of Alberta, 2015). To attain the first level, child development 34

CANADA

assistant, one must complete a 58-hour government-sponsored orientation course, an equivalent high school course, or a 45-hour college-level child development course.8 The second level, child development worker, requires a one-year ECE certificate from an Alberta college or the equivalent. Finally, to achieve the third level, child development supervisor, an individual must hold a two-year diploma from an Alberta college or the equivalent. Therefore, educators are perceived as needing varying amounts of preparation, but the focus on coursework, especially child development coursework, tends to reduce educators’ role to that of technicians who enact dominant practices and theories, thus impeding their ability to use judgment and tailor their practice to the local context, as described by Moss (2006). The curriculum frameworks and other policy documents extend beyond the construction of the educator as a technician by defining, to varying degrees, the roles of the educator. Frameworks such as Saskatchewan’s, New Brunswick’s, and Alberta’s are clearly inspired by the Reggio Emilia notion of the educator as a researcher, co-constructing knowledge and curriculum alongside the children and families (Dahlberg, Moss, & Pence, 2007). For instance, the Saskatchewan framework ascribes various roles to educators, including observer, documenter, listener, researcher, creator of stimulating environment, co-constructor of knowledge, negotiator, supporter of children’s participation in decision making, facilitator of small-group learning, supporter of social relationships, partner with families, and supporter of diversity. In Ontario, educators are to be knowledgeable (about development and the specific child), reflective, and responsive to children and families. Most of the curriculum documents propose that during children’s play and exploration, educators observe children, follow their lead, and scaffold their learning. The Quebec framework relates educator styles to different parenting styles, asserting that the democratic (or authoritative) style is optimal for building relationships with children and promoting active learning. PART 2 THE ILLUSTRATIVE CASE: THE BRIDGING PROGRAM

Theoretical Underpinnings While the curriculum frameworks and other documents guiding early childhood practice in each province only briefly discuss cultural, linguistic, and ethnic diversity, five provinces have officially accepted multiculturalism in education. Saskatchewan was the first to implement this policy, in 1974, followed by Ontario in 1977. Other provinces, such as Alberta in 1984, Manitoba in 1992, and British Columbia in 1993, have followed suit with multiculturalism acts or combined acts and policies that include human rights and citizenship. In 1983 a policy of –––––––––––––– 8 In licensed centres, assistants comprise 41% of the staff (The Muttart Foundation & Langford, 2014).

35

CHAPTER 2

interculturalism was introduced by the Quebec government as an alternative to multiculturalism policy (Talbani, 1993). Since 1995, some of these acts have been revised, repealed, or reduced in composition and stature (Chan, 2007). In regards to early childhood education, the field’s participation in the multicultural and intercultural education discourses in North America in general has revolved mainly around attempts to represent the increased diversity among student populations of all ages within the classroom, couched in a developmental frame of the universal child (Penn, 2005). In early childhood settings, for example, a litany of reference books (Copple, 2003; Gonzalez-Mena, 2008) and educational play props are available to assist teachers in creating learning environments that are more reflective of the diversity of students within them. Furthermore, DAP and anti-bias frameworks have articulated guidelines that outline how early childhood practitioners can assist children to achieve optimal development (Bredekamp & Copple, 2009) and prepare all children to resist institutional “isms” (DermanSparks & Edwards, 2010). However, a body of critical literature strongly suggests that these practices reduce culture to representative features (dress, food, dance, etc.) and profess predictability in the face of complexity (González, Moll, & Amanti, 2005; Kirova, 2008). The struggle in the field persists as it attempts, on one hand, to develop environments and practices that are responsive to the diverse needs of young children in today’s classrooms (Espinosa, 2010) and, on the other, to provide universally applicable guidelines that establish quality early childhood educational environments for all. The tension is evidenced in the most recent revision of DAP (Bredekamp & Copple, 2009), in which guidelines for early childhood environments, programming, and materials perpetuate the assumption that only particular types of environments and practices are appropriate. At the same time, an increased number of scholars in the ECE field in both Canada and the United States have been advocating for practices rooted in deeper understanding of multiculturalism that includes the use of children’s first language in their first years of schooling (e.g., Bernhard, 2012; Evans & Cleghorn, 2012; Paradis & Kirova, 2013; Tollefson & Tsui, 2004), assisting newcomer families to overcome the difficulties they encounter as their children enter early childhood settings, including linguistic differences, lack of program/school support (Song & Wang, 2006), lack of understanding program/school expectations for involvement (Bernhard, 2010, 2012), confronting teacher bias or other discrimination issues (Ali, 2012; Eberly, Joshi, & Konzal, 2007), and acknowledging parents’ different views of education and the parental role (Adair, 2009; Ali, 2012). Although these researchers are beginning to change the theoretical landscape in the field, a real shift in practice would be possible only if new approaches to ECE, including ECTE, are embraced in practice. Unfortunately, as Prochner and PaciniKetchabaw (2013) observe, although there is some evidence of a reconceptualized approach to early childhood in North America in general and Canada in particular, it remains largely marginalized. The reconceptualization of children and childhood is consistent with critical pedagogy theorists, including Freire (1972), Giroux (1991), and Apple (1995). Critical theorists posit that dialogue is the foundation of emancipatory pedagogies. Practices framed in critical pedagogy can encourage 36

CANADA

immigrant and refugee child care educators to voice their knowledges and ideas, to influence existing practice, and to plan proactively for their own futures. However, with a few exceptions (e.g., Bernheimer, 2003; Gupta, 2006; Massing, 2015; Wilgus, 2013), insufficient attention has been given to ECTE programs that involve predominantly immigrant and refugee child care educators, as in the Canadian bridging program, and how such programs meaningfully incorporate their cultural knowledges in early childhood practices to better serve the diverse needs of newcomer families with young children. Immigrant and Refugee Child Care Educators Immigrant and refugee women represent a significant proportion of workers in centre-based or family child care in Canada. In 2015, 18.9% of child care positions were filled by immigrants as compared with 12% of occupations overall (Service Canada, 2015) The situation is similar in the United States, where 18% of child care workers are immigrants (Park, McHugh, Zong, & Batalova, 2015). The numbers vary from state to state, with immigrant child care workers representing close to 40% of child care workers in California and New York. In Canada as in the United States, those who choose child care work as a point of entry into the workforce are typically required to take additional training. Although as learners, immigrant and refugee women have specific educational and (English) language needs, they possess valuable cultural knowledge that can help the early childhood practices to better meet the needs of the diverse population of children and families. However, as Park et al. (2015) note, the “trend toward requiring higher levels of education and credentials for ECEC workers may have the indirect result of pushing immigrant workers with less formal education out of the ECEC field, in turn diminishing the linguistic and cultural competence of the workforce overall” (p. 27). In the province in which our study took place, newcomers who have prior education and experience (i.e., teaching certificates and experience in their home countries) may qualify for child care worker or child care supervisor levels of certification if they meet specific English or French language requirements. Those who have no prior training but draw on their experience with children may be able to enter the early childhood workforce with a 58-hour orientation course at the child care assistant level. Many of these newcomers, almost all of whom are women, would like to advance in the field through further training but are unable to do so because they lack the English skills to be accepted in accredited training programs (Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 2010) or the financial means to participate in training programs (Child Care Human Resources Sector Council, 2009). Additionally, their life circumstances often make it difficult for them to pursue their studies in formal settings (Bernheimer, 2003; Blank, 2010).

37

CHAPTER 2

The research involving the bridging program9 was conducted in a large city in western Canada in the context of an educational worksite-embedded program. The program was designed to meet immigrant and refugee participants’ specific needs, build on their strengths, and thus provide them with a career ladder as child care educators. Although bridging programs for newcomers to Canada are common and are typically “designed for new immigrants to help channel immigrant workers into the lowest echelons of the labour market” (Creese, 2011, p. 67), the bridging program we describe in this chapter was unique in that it intended to uncover the cultural and personal knowledges that immigrant women bring to their work in child care and the possible tensions that existed between their cultural knowledge and professional knowledge in the ELCC field. Thus the goal of the program worked intentionally and actively against what Creese identified as a trend in such programs to “actively construct immigrant women as cheap labour … and ‘naturalize’ their skills and aptitudes” (p. 67). Canadian Research Site and Participants Concerned about the lack of options for immigrant early childhood educators, an immigrant-serving agency attached to a child care centre sought and was granted government funding to pilot a workplace-embedded two-year program to “bridge” immigrant early childhood educators into the postsecondary system. The overall program aims, as defined by the funding agreement, were to improve students’ English language skills and teach the dominant theory and practice in the ECE field. However, consistent with a participatory action research focus, the program adopted a learner-centred approach to curriculum, with the participants’ realities impacting decisions about content, learning outcomes, instructional strategies, and assessment. In the bridging program, the characteristics that learners brought to the classroom included their premigration and settlement status, current life realities, level of English proficiency, and earlier education experiences. Instructional and assessment strategies were heavily influenced by learner realities (more will be said on this topic in Chapter 5). However, the content and learning outcomes grew from an analysis of the curricula of postsecondary ELCC programs and were less influenced by student characteristics. Nineteen child care educators, all women, participated in the bridging program. Volunteer mentors were recruited to work one-to-one with the educators, and both the educators and the mentors participated in the research.10 The child care –––––––––––––– 9 Bridging programs are government-sponsored training initiatives designed to prepare newcomers to enter the workforce in areas of high need that may also match their interests, experience, and skills. In the case of the study’s research participants, eight had prior experience or training in child care or in other educational contexts in their country of origin. 10 The program’s uniqueness made it an ideal site for two research projects. The first was funded by the Alberta Centre for Child, Family, and Community Research (ACCFC) and began in January 2013. Its goal was to explore tensions between cultural child care knowledge and the primarily western-based knowledge that defines our child care practice, and to find ways to resolve these. The second was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and included (continued)

38

CANADA

educators were immigrants or refugees from nine different countries (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Morocco, Senegal, Somalia, El Salvador, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Vietnam) who were employed in seven different child care programs. The students met weekly for a three-hour class from September to April over a period of two years. The mentors met with the students during or following the class to support their learning. The majority of the mentors were retired or semiretired educators (teachers, consultants, or professors). Study Design The research aspect of the program was designed as participatory action research (PAR). PAR methodology falls under the larger umbrella of action research, which also includes practitioner research, collaborative action research, cooperative inquiry, community-based participatory research, and feminist action research. Herr and Anderson (2005) explain that “each of these terms connotes different purposes, positionalities, epistemologies, ideological commitments, and, in many cases, different research traditions that grew out of very different social contexts” (pp. 2–3). While as researchers we held privileged/insider access to the dominant ECE discourse being taught in the program’s curriculum, we were situated as outsiders to the participants’ own emic cultural perspectives on child-rearing. Therefore, as the Canadian researchers, we needed not only to interpret the participants’ culturally bound perspectives, but also to understand the ways in which the dominant professional discourses were reinterpreted in the local context. It was therefore necessary, as required by the research process, for all participants to become co-researchers. The team approach utilized in the Canadian research site involved close collaboration with local early childhood teacher educators, researchers, and two research assistants. The research was guided by principles for ethical conduct, including reciprocity and equity. Stringer (2007) explains that all types of action research are context bound and focus on specific situations and contextual actions. Therefore, the research process is constantly evolving through an interacting spiral of look, think, and act, and may change directions throughout the course of the study. The process is a central feature of the research and is mediated through the relationships between the researchers and the participants. Thus, consistent with participatory research methodology, qualitative data were coconstructed and generated collectively during all phases of the process. Qualitative data collection methods represent a growing trend in early childhood research (Hatch, 2007) due to the need for “more ethnographic research which can paint in the fine-grained reality of educational processes within early childhood settings” (Siraj-Blatchford & Siraj-Blatchford, 2001, p. 194). Qualitative methods permit in-depth understanding of already-identified broad issues and require a sustained time on site to bring the importance of culturally linked patterns of thought and practice into focus (Aubrey, David, Godfrey, & Thompson, 2000). –––––––––––––– ECTE programs in Colombia and Namibia; it began in the fall of 2013. Both projects were developed in partnership with a local university.

39

CHAPTER 2

Data collection commenced in October of 2012, the first year of this program, and involved following student teachers from the first day in their program. As is typical for qualitative data collection, attention was paid to repeated, regular events as well as to exceptional episodes. Data-gathering strategies included analyzing documents pertaining to ECTE philosophy, curriculum, and policy and reconstructing the cultural meanings of educational processes from the participants’ perspectives through observations, video and audio recordings of coursework and practice, and follow-up interviews with teacher educators and student teachers. Focus groups (Bloor, Frankland, Thomas, & Robson, 2001) and individual interviews with course instructors and students, as well as field notes, were used as data-generating research methods. The cyclic nature of participatory research methodologies requires data to be analyzed on an on-going basis. Thus, after analyzing each of the data sources, significant items of information are to be identified and shared among the coresearchers. Clustering similar items into categories and themes allowed for the identification of group-similar items which served to guide a group decisionmaking process leading to concrete solutions to the identified practical problems (Creswell, 2008). Particular attention was given to cultural tensions arising from clashes between Eurocentric course content and students’ personal cultural knowledges and beliefs about what is “good for children” and what constitutes professional early childhood practice. These tensions were more pronounced during the second year of the program when an instructor from a local university was employed with the expectation that she would teach the same content and use a similar approach to the one she would normally use in the university program. This tactic served the dual purpose of introducing the students to postsecondary expectations and uncovering tensions in learning style and content. Curriculum and Instruction Each year of the two-year bridging program had a distinct focus. In the first year, the instructor aimed to understand what students already knew about the expectations placed on them as child care providers, the contexts of their workplaces, their educational backgrounds, and their learning styles. The culturally specific skills and knowledges the students brought to their work with children in the child care centres in which they were employed formed a starting point for examining the expectations and conventions of “western” early childhood practice. The second year was identified as a transition to conventional postsecondary learning, in this case a two-year college diploma program in ECE. The instructor used the typical curriculum of a communications course in a regular college program. However, the second-year instructor was still attentive to culturally constructed ways of child socialization and education. This meant she tried to infuse cultural content throughout the entire course. The curriculum content in each year of the program was different, though concepts and topics from earlier classes were revisited as the program progressed.

40

CANADA

Curriculum Content The project mandate included defining and teaching the content of four core courses in ELCC curricula. To develop the curriculum, the two instructors analyzed the course outlines for ELCC programs at five public postsecondary institutions in the province in which the study took place, comparing course descriptions, outcomes, content, and assignments. Table 2.1 illustrates how the courses from the five institutions were considered to be largely equivalent to one another. Table 2.1. Courses offered across five colleges Courses Offered Healthy Environments for Early Learning and Care Nutrition, Health, and Safety Foundations of Early Childhood Development Introduction to Developmentally Appropriate Practice in ELCC Settings Child Development Practicum Interpersonal Communication Interpersonal Relations Communications Interpersonal Competencies Personal Development and Interaction Creative Experiences for Young Children Art, Music, and Literature Creative Expression in Early Learning and Care

1

2

College 3

X

X

4

5

X X

X

X X X

X X

X X

X X

X X X

X X X X X X

Content from each of the equivalent courses was considered in creating four core courses: Healthy Environments, Creative Experiences, Child Development, and, and Communication and Relationships. The program consisted of 240 instructional hours along with assignments to be completed in the playrooms 41

CHAPTER 2

and/or at home and possible time spent with mentors outside of class. This time focused primarily on ELCC, with modifications for English as an additional language (EAL). In addition, 121 hours of classes were devoted primarily to EAL. These were offered during regular class time in the summer of 2013 and on Saturdays during the winter and summer terms in 2014. Because the summer EAL classes were offered during their work hours, most students were able to attend them; however, the Saturday classes usually drew five to eight people. The students in the program were all employed in child care centres, and this provided a common understanding upon which to build. They knew the general pattern and challenges of the child care day and the expectations associated with their role. They were aware of licensing and health and safety standards, and most had some familiarity with accreditation requirements. However, the bridging program afforded a unique opportunity to identify differences between westernbased child care theories and practice and the cultural and personal knowledge and beliefs the students brought to their work. The students seemed excited to have the opportunity to contribute knowledge that would help the child care profession better understand the needs of immigrant and refugee children, families, students, and colleagues. Continually relating to cultural knowledge gave a foundation for exploring similarities and differences in western practice and showed the students that their knowledge and experiences had value in Canada. The curriculum approach was identified by the instructors as “learner-centered, based in relationship, emergent and recursive, and [building] on personal experiences, link[ing] theory to practice, and incorporat[ing] storytelling, concrete experiences, modelling, cross-cultural sharing, teamwork, and shared life and work experience” (cited in Massing & Shortreed, 2014, p. 72). Year One: Strategies to Elicit Students’ Cultural Knowledges The primary instructor in the first year sought to establish a classroom environment where students and the instructor would feel comfortable sharing their experiences and learning from each other. Desks were arranged in a large U-shape so students could all see each other. The instructor demonstrated caring for her students by providing tea, coffee, and snacks for break times, arranged in a small kitchen area along one wall. The classroom was equipped with student resources, including a small lending library, art supplies, laptop computers, and a printer/photocopier. The instructor engaged students in creative activities similar to those they recalled from their childhoods, using found materials where possible. Discussing their childhood play experiences was seen as a practical starting point for integrating theory and practice with immediate applicability to students’ work with children in their places of employment. As well, such practical activities did not require extensive English language use and were welcomed by the students at the beginning of the program. As students arrived, the instructor generally positioned herself close to the door to greet them rather than remaining in the clearly defined instructor space inside the U shape and close to the board. She sat on or at a student desk, close to the 42

CANADA

students and in an informal manner, with an open posture and invitational and nonthreatening body language. She presented herself as a co-learner or a facilitator rather than taking an expert stance. She avoided using the board or showing PowerPoint slides, and she often distanced herself from the dominant ECE knowledge by saying things like “they say that you shouldn’t …” instead of telling the students what to do based on her expertise. Consistent with her focus on developing a relational environment, the instructor shared her personal experiences but mainly kept the focus on students. This was a deliberate attempt to position the students as experts, motivating them to build a body of knowledge intended to benefit immigrant children and families. The instructor employed both verbal and nonverbal methods to elicit the students’ indigenous perspectives. Consistent with Gupta’s (2006) work with immigrant child development students, she sought to have them form connections between theory and practice in order to draw out their funds of knowledge (González, Moll, & Amanti, 2005) with respect to child development, child care/rearing, and socialization goals. However, instead of presenting the authoritative knowledge first and asking them to respond, as Gupta did with her students, she usually foregrounded their knowledges, inviting them to comment on a topic based on their own experiences, then having a learning facilitator present the western theory, and finally juxtaposing the two bodies of knowledge by asking for their comments a second time. As an example, when teaching developmental milestones she opened the lesson with “I want to know if these are different in different cultures” (Field notes11). Students proceeded to discuss tensions between western notions of child development and those enacted in their cultural communities, connecting experience to development. One student mentioned how Islamic religious beliefs curtailed children’s involvement in certain activities that are valued in Canada, potentially impacting their physical development: “They (their bodies) cannot be exposed so when they go swimming they cannot go” (FN). A number of students observed that socialization goals for young children in Canada are framed around the development of “school skills,” resonating with LeVine et al.’s (1994) pedagogical model. Several students referred to how preschool-aged children are expected to be able to cut with scissors, but immigrant families do not share this expectation, leading to tension. As one student described, “Teachers get mad, but they haven’t reached this milestone” (FN). Others were surprised that many preschool-aged children in Canada can recite the alphabet and numbers and write their names. As one student explained, “In our playschool, we have a lot of kids—4 and 4 ½—who can write their names by themselves. They can do a lot of things by themselves. They can do it, I think, because they are Canadian people” (FN). The instructor drew on the students’ examples to teach about the influence of contextual factors on development. In another instance, she asked students if anything in their home environment in Canada reminded them of their home country. Their responses revolved around special foods in their countries and –––––––––––––– 11 Hereafter FN.

43

CHAPTER 2

tensions around eating practices, such as using high chairs and eating with hands. This led to a discussion of how food can assist children with feeling at home in the child care centre where they shared about cultural foods for young children and feeding practices that could be brought into their child care practice. Students emphasized that most of the children, particularly children from their own cultures, do not like the foods served in the child care centre, with mushroom soup being the least liked item. They identified cultural dishes that would be preferred, such as injera (a type of African flatbread), a Nepalese fruit, a noodle and rice dish, and a porridge with pounded grain or flour and meat, which were digestible, met the requirements of the Canada Food Guide, and were not too spicy. In general, the first-year instructor invited students to share their cultural perspectives both formally and informally, inserting pauses as she spoke to allow them time to reflect and respond. Video elicitation formed the basis of one discussion. After they viewed a documentary entitled Babies that depicts childrearing in four different cultures, the instructor asked, “Was there anything that was surprising to you?” Their responses included remarks that they were surprised by a mother using breast milk to clean her son’s face, by another mother who was never seen cooking or finding food, whom they perceived to be not “taking care” of her child, that several of the children were never “talked to,” and about the potential danger of one child roaming freely among cattle. The students concurred that the Namibian boy shown in the video would be the “strongest,” though apparently lacking formal schooling, because he had the freedom to roam and explore outdoors; they lamented that in their countries, boys possess this freedom while girls stay inside and help their mothers. The use of the film for instructional purposes is discussed further in Chapter 5. Even in the assignments, the instructor recognized the dissonance between students’ cultural ways of being and those mandated in the dominant discourse, as seen in the following explanation: This (assignment) is about the difference between cultural ways of being and what western practice demands, so it just asks you to try to do some things a little bit differently. Maybe you do these already and that’s okay. … But it (the assignment) says “this week try interacting with children in a way that’s a bit new for you. Some examples might be playing on the floor with the child, kneeling to be at the child’s level, talking about a child’s feelings.” … Think about something that you might not normally do or maybe you do but it’s a bit hard for you. Try it, and say what you did differently, how it felt to you, and how the child responded. (FN) By being tentative and acknowledging how difficult it is to fundamentally change one’s practice, the instructor aimed to build students’ confidence to try something new. The instructor was also intentional about honouring students’ home languages. As Kennedy (2008) found in her research with immigrant education students, home language discussions about content were a beneficial prelude to class writing activities. In the second half of each session, students formed small groups to 44

CANADA

discuss the content and complete a written assignment. The instructor suggested that they work in home-language groups as needed and desired rather than pushing them to practice speaking English. Year Two: Transition to Formal Postsecondary Learning The goal of the program’s second year was to prepare students for formal postsecondary learning. In keeping with this mandate, the instructor positioned herself beside a digital projector at the front of the class, more distant from the students than in the first year of the program. Her teaching methods were the same as those she used at the college, with heavy reliance on lectures using PowerPoint and breaking into individual or small-group work at various points in the class. In terms of assessment, the assignments were identical to those she assigned her college classes, but in the bridging program she gave only comments instead of marks. The course content and the readings reflected dominant western notions about identity and communication, reinforcing “the one right way” of interacting with young children. Students perceived the instructor as an expert, frequently asking her if certain practices were “okay” or asking for her advice. In every class, the instructor would make at least one reference to the expectations in the college around technology, neatness, assignments, and punctuality. When asked about the homework, she stated: I think it’s up to you, given your life and where you want to go. You do the parts to what your level of comfort is. If some of you are hoping to go on to college, you need to do your homework. They don’t have a “no zero” policy (laughs). If you don’t do your homework, they don’t give grades for effort. (FN) The following month when many of the students arrived late, she commented, “If I was at the college I would start right at 12:00 and do really important things at the beginning of class and people who would miss that would miss that, but I realize that you are coming from other [distant] places.” By making the students aware of these expectations—for example, that it was “good practice” to email her if they missed class—and using PowerPoint slides to present information, the instructor sought to prepare them to transition to the expectations of the college program should they choose to continue their studies. At the same time that she presented herself as expert, the instructor placed a strong emphasis on developing respectful, reciprocal relationships with students. She greeted students warmly as they arrived, taking time for a brief conversation, and moved about during activities to check in with them. During class, she shared many deeply personal stories with them as an invitation, but not a requirement, to reciprocate by telling their own stories. When students shared information with her, she listened attentively and referred back to that information in subsequent conversations to demonstrate that she cared and had heard them. In their first assignment on the topic of identity, they were asked to bring an object to class representing something that had changed how they view things. The instructor 45

CHAPTER 2

modelled the process by telling a very emotional personal story. While students asserted that they could not have been so open about their experiences in year one when did not know one another, they nonetheless felt secure in sharing deeply personal information in the class, sometimes weeping in the process. If students’ answers were “wrong” in terms of DAP practice, the instructor was affirming, and rather than overtly correcting them, she presented an alternative possibility. As an example, using descriptive feedback instead of offering vague praise and rewards was a difficult notion for the students to grasp, as it was not practiced in their cultures. One student stated that she would tell a child who was helping another child put his shoes on “Great job! You are teaching him how to put his shoes on!” The instructor, who had asked them to avoid using phrases such as “good job,” responded: Okay, so you’ve got the “great job” there, but you’ve added onto it. And that’s a good in-between step, right? I say “great job” and it gives me time to think, and then I add on. Eventually maybe that “great job” won’t be there and you’ll just say, “You’re helping him put his shoes on.” But that’s fine when you add those two together. (FN) When students asked her if specific practices were “okay,” the instructor attempted to acknowledge contextual variations. For example, when a student asked about touching babies on the cheek, a sign of love in her country, the instructor responded, “We don’t really know what the families’ backgrounds are, because even within one culture there are so many variations, right? So for me, that just says how important it is to talk to parents and get to know those things” (FN). She accommodated the students as language learners by explaining content two or three times in slightly different ways, providing synonyms for challenging vocabulary and using gestures and actions to convey meanings. Therefore, she strove to adopt the role of a facilitator who aided students in understanding dominant practice. She attempted to navigate the divide between professional and indigenous practices, explaining, “So, there are layers, all sorts of things you have to be aware of in terms of our culture of origin and what we do in our family, what we do in Canada, and what we do in child care” (FN). She tried to make students aware of how regulatory frameworks such as licensing and accreditation standards impact practice: “So it’s hard, but you have this extra layer of having licensing and accreditation (validators) who will be looking for eye contact” (FN). In this way, students gained access to the professional discourses in the field. By acknowledging students’ cultural funds of knowledge (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992), she faulted the accreditation and licensing standards for excluding them from the dominant discourse. In one class, she told a story about visiting a child care centre where everyone called the children “baby.” One of the educators told her it was a term of endearment in her country that meant “I care for you as I do for my own baby.” The instructor noted the following in her field notes:

46

CANADA

Her intentions were very loving and giving. And so we had a discussion: One of the things your licensing officer and accreditation validator will be looking for is using a child’s name. So I learned a little about what her intentions were and she learned a little about what some people would be looking for. So, what is your intention when you say “sweetie,” “honey,” “darling”? We care about them, like them, love them. In my professional self, what are some ways I can do that and use their name, and I think you’ve got the answer here. (FN) In this way, the instructor was able to defer making a personal judgment and maintain a relationship of trust with the students while teaching professional practice. However, she also let the students know that she did not always agree with the standards in regard to bringing out their funds of knowledge: We need to look at that as we look at the materials in this course. Again, because you will be an excellent resource in helping us figure that out, and figure out what are the ways that you can work within what accreditation and licensing is expecting in terms of quality care for children, and also what you are comfortable with in terms of your own culture. (FN) Tensions between Cultural and Professional Knowledge Research (e.g., Rogoff, 2003) indicates that, consistent with positivist perspectives, the western system of education, including teacher education programs, is based on abstract, scientific modes of thinking that prioritize critical thinking and literacy as ways of understanding the world. More specifically, the western education system reflects cultural assumptions, such as that students must become independent learners and be held individually accountable for their work (DeCapua & Marshall, 2010a). These assumptions may not resonate for individuals who have not experienced this model of education (Chavajay & Rogoff, 2002; DeCapua & Marshall, 2010a). Their schooling may have been interrupted or limited by their premigration experiences, and they may have different ways of perceiving the world, along with a great deal of practical knowledge (DeCapua & Marshall, 2010b). They may come from cultures that view interconnectedness and social relationships as more important than focusing on individual achievement (Kâgitçibasi, 2007). In spite of their different cultural backgrounds and life experiences, preservice teachers are expected to accept the western cultural assumptions, including child development theories. In traditional ECTE programs, students are led to believe that such (authoritative) knowledge will transform them into professionals. The “scientific” approaches to child development “necessarily eliminate culturally based understandings about teaching and learning that teacher candidates bring to their teacher preparation” (Montecinos, 2004, p. 174). However, it is not only the bodies of knowledge shaping teacher education programs that must be interrogated, but also the ways in which instructors and programs choose to represent and impart these understandings to students. The delivery mode of the content (e.g., the use of 47

CHAPTER 2

PowerPoint) enhances western authoritative ways of being through its modes of communication and representation, means of organizing information, and forms of representing content and pedagogical approaches, thus displacing immigrant and refugee students’ own indigenous ways of knowing. For immigrants or refugees whose cultural knowledge and experiences are silenced by the dominant discourses in the ECE field, the expectation to conform to them in order to become professionals can be a source of tension and can affect their performance as students. The research at the Canadian site identified areas of tension or discontinuities at each stage of the curriculum cycle. Cultural perspectives challenged accepted professional practice with respect to the program content. Instructional strategies were determined by personal and cultural perspectives, but the time required to elicit and build on these perspectives impacted the participants’ ability to achieve learning outcomes. Further, the range of learning styles and abilities influenced assessment. These tensions raised many questions about approaches to the ELCC curriculum and its ability to meet the needs of diverse learners. In order to address the comparative three-country study’s main research question concerning the relationships between indigenous ways of thinking and western discourse in reference to the preparation of educators, only the tensions between the cultural knowledge immigrant child care educators bring to their work and the professional knowledge in the ELCC community of practice will be discussed in the following sections. Adult–Child Relationships The study revealed that the area of adult-child relationships carried tension and ambivalence for the immigrant participants in the group. The participating students’ own early experiences and normative structures of family life, along with their embodied values, beliefs, and child-rearing goals and expectations, suggested a relatively greater hierarchical relationship between adults and children and within parent-child roles (Rubin & Chung, 2013) than are prevalent in Canadian society and expected in ELCC professional practice (Papatheodorou, 2010). As one of the participants put it, Sitting with kids … for us as a woman, I can’t do that … coming to the level … especially, whatever you want to do in the classroom. We are not used to that … even though a man teacher, he’s not going to sit, he will have his own desk and a blackboard. (Tersit, from Ethiopia) This tension was expressed in the participants’ discussions about how they would be with children in their workplace and how they were challenged by their experiences with their own and other children. Many of the participants saw respect (parental/adult authority) as an important value for children to learn and express in their relationships with adults. However, some of the participants did not see this to be the case in Canada:

48

CANADA

It is so different from here and where I come from, the interest of the child. So, there is no way I (as a child) can express my interest. But it’s always there that my mom put us this, this (slaps her hand) … if I ask my daughter to do this, I have to explain why, you know, prepare an explanation. Of course, I have to respect them. At the same time, maybe I don’t like it. There is no way, they [say] “you hurt my feeling.” There is no way, no way, no way (lots of agreement in background). (Tersit from Ethiopia) Unvaryingly, the cultural expectations were that children’s relationships with their parents were to be respectful, as revealed in this discussion of eye contact: I don’t know the other culture, but in my culture you don’t look (at) your mother like this. (Hasna, from Somalia) Yeah [my culture is the] same. We learn eye contact here in Canada. In our culture you are not allowed to fix your eyes on your parent or even any adult because it’s disrespectful. That’s why it was so hard when we are here studying or doing some kind of interview. Because here maybe they were thinking you are shy. (Laila, from Morocco) “Or hiding something” (another student adds). Many participants perceived that they themselves were not being treated respectfully by the children in their workplace, which contrasted sharply with their own early experiences, where teacher and parent were equally respected and the parent would reinforce the teacher’s discipline: When we were in school, you have to look at the teacher and have to respect her like a mom, because if not you are spanked by the teacher plus your mom. (Abida, from Somalia) We listened to our parents and … when I started working in day care, ooohhhh. I love children, but still you’re thinking, where are these children coming from, why are they acting that way? (Sofia, from El Salvador) In the participants’ school experiences, the teacher had a great deal of power, and unquestioning obedience was the norm: The teachers were very important role in our lives. They were like our second parents. There was no observation of the child. “This is the curriculum. This is what you are going to learn.” You know, it was very set, very structured. And our parents, they trusted the teachers so much. They knew that if we didn’t pass the class it’s not because the teacher wasn’t giving enough, it’s because we didn’t give enough. (Teresa, from El Salvador) The teacher all the time she is right. All the time. When I’m coming back in my home and I talk about [with] my mommy: “The teacher she do something.” “No, you, maybe you do something wrong. She can’t do that. You do something.” The teachers used to have control like this. And then she

49

CHAPTER 2

brought a ruler and bring the student to the front … (slapping noise). And the kids don’t even cry. (Sajita, from Eritrea) In their countries, classes were often large and punishments were severe: There they have good behaviour. They have to listen. Every time a teacher has more like bossy and more power. Not like in Canada. (Cathy, from Vietnam) One principal I remember, I will never forget his name, he was a very scary one. He made us walk on our knees. The floor is not flat, maybe rock with mud mixed together, very hard. It made you bleed when you came out; he didn’t care. (Sara, from Ethiopia, describing her grade 1 experience in which children were severely punished if they were late for school) Consistent with this finding, Cunningham Florez and Burt (2001) mention that often, early socialization has taught immigrants to respect elders and authorities and not to challenge or ask questions. Interacting with Children Communication and guidance seemed to have particular significance to immigrant and refugee child care educators because the western ways of communicating with and relating to children were culturally unfamiliar to them. In addition, they often felt they lacked the English language proficiency to feel comfortable explaining and discussing with children. The dominant discourse of early childhood— developmentally appropriate practices and western normative developmental theories—is frequently operationalized as a binary between “appropriate” and “inappropriate” teaching and assessment practices. A PowerPoint slide that mirrors this conception was used in the class on guidance and communication (see Figure 2.2). The slide affirms prescriptive (western) ways of speaking to children and guiding their behaviours. Although using descriptive feedback as a way of speaking to children was unfamiliar to students, only one (Hasna, from Somalia) directly challenged the authority of the information on the slide: Hasna: I don’t know about other people, but for me, because this is a second language for me, it’s easier for me to shorten the thing instead of sitting there and explaining to the kid all of this. It’s slow, but if I say “good job,” “good girl,” it’s short. (Classmates are agreeing with her.) But to explain is so slow. (Classmates laugh.) Instructor: I’m going to encourage you, Hasna, to add a little bit more. Hasna: But in my country, my mother always said, “Oh, you’re such a good girl.” I feel so happy, so good. Instructor: Okay, okay, so there’s the reason why that may be what you say.

50

CANADA

Figure 2.2. Descriptive feedback versus praise

Rigidity is implicit in the slide’s layout. There is one right (and one wrong) way and the happy and sad faces communicate this to students. While Hasna contested the authority of the text, during the ensuing discussion, the other students argued in favour of the “appropriate” practice, eventually leading Hasna to acquiesce and say that she, too, would use descriptive feedback. The instructor explained that learning to communicate with children in the ways shown on the slide was, in essence, a “third language,” but stressed that it is the language of the ELCC profession. Gender Roles and Child Care Becoming acquainted with western views of gender roles of child care was unsettling for the participants. Although their knowledge and perspectives about parenting and caregiving varied according to differences in family structure and socioeconomic status in their home countries, their experiences were similar in regard to gender-specific parental responsibilities and relationships with young children (Rubin & Chung, 2013). While the ELCC field promotes the value of including male child care educators (Mukuna & Mutsotso, 2011), the students in the program felt strongly that women, rather than men, should be caring for young children, particularly in the very early years.12 The following strong belief one participant expressed was shared among all: –––––––––––––– 12 Originally one man was enrolled in the program, but he left a few months into the program when he obtained a new position in the public school system. The students seemed open and receptive to his being there, but it should be noted that he was working with older children in an out-of-school care program, which was deemed by the female students to be more appropriate for a male educator.

51

CHAPTER 2

In the culture where we grow up, we believe only woman can take care of children, because what we say, women have more patience than men. And women can understand and look after the child. When child is crying, say go see your mom. (Yay, from Senegal) The view of the mother as biologically predetermined to provide exclusive care, without which the child’s attachment is undermined and their overall well-being is harmed, is not unique to the participants in this program. This construction of motherhood, articulated in Bowlby’s (1969) attachment theory, was still pervasive and influential in the European Union’s opinion survey in the early 1990s (Commission of the European Communities, 1993). The construction of motherhood is a result of the interplay of sociopolitical, cultural, and economic factors in each society, so the expectation that the newly constructed (since the 1960s) need to increase women’s participation in the labour market in the minority (western) world is universal is another example of imposing western worldviews on culturally different groups, including immigrants and refugees. The construction of the need for nonmaternal or alternative care for very young children is recognized as being driven by the labour market’s needs (Dahlberg, Moss, & Pence, 2007), and therefore, the societies that are at a different level of economic development than those in the west, as is the case of the societies from which the participants came, may not have yet reached the point where alternatives to home/maternal child care are needed. However, through their stories, which were solicited by the researchers, participants shared ways men had played a role in their childhood. Helen, from Eritrea, recalled how her father, who had been forced to drop out of school at a young age, encouraged her to pursue an education: “Always he was telling me stories [saying,] ‘You need to learn. I didn’t learn so I feel like I don’t know anything. So be straight for your education … you have to go hard, hard.’” Similarly, Tersit, from Ethiopia, shared: I have a special connection with my dad. He was a teacher. He encouraged us to read. So what he was doing, okay, he give us one book to read and I have a part and my sister has a part and my brother has a part. … So, it was very nice. Honestly, he was the best dad to me. So, he was doing that so I still feel more attached to my dad. Teresa, from El Salvador, had particularly vivid memories of one of her father’s employees who spent time with her and her siblings: He came to read us stories every evening and even he will repeat the same stories, little things like the sounds of the animals. He was one of my dad’s workers. He wasn’t like a caregiver. He was just doing this when he had time. But yeah, he was the one who made stories for us. He would pretend to read because he didn’t know how to read. He would make the sounds of the tigers and the sounds of the lions. And he would teach us words in English. He didn’t know the meaning, but he would say the words. He was so funny. He was very creative. 52

CANADA

Dominant ELCC approaches to early gender socialization (UNESCO, 2007) reflecting nontraditional western formulations of gender identity that were included in discussions of gender stereotypes brought forth participants’ cultural ideas. Examples included the ideas that boys should only play with boys, men should be guides for their children, men’s responsibility is to discipline their kids, boys shouldn’t cry, and boys should give instructions and “tell the rest of us what to do.” Participants felt that girls, on the other hand, should “help mom with cooking, sewing, laundry,” “stay at home,” “not go outside at night,” “be calm,” “shouldn’t sit cross-legged,” should “not study and read because they’re supposed to get married,” “shouldn’t smoke or drink alcohol,” and “shouldn’t ride bikes.” Although these conceptions of gender were based on the participants’ early experiences in their home culture, they did not always subscribe to these traditional gender roles. However, while they recognized that “things are changing” and some commented that their cultural ideas about gender were something they did not want to retain in Canada, their strong opinions that men should not work with young children in child care settings did not change over the course of the study. Image of the Child Emerging ELCC professional practice, influenced by the United Nations (1989) Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and reflected in programs such as Reggio Emilia, focuses on children’s rights as individuals rather than as members of families and groups (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2004). Consistent with the CRC and the new sociology of childhood (e.g., James & Prout, 1990/1997), Malaguzzi (1994) suggested that we need to see children as capable, curious, strong, and knowledgeable, and as having full rights of citizenship. His views underpin the Reggio Emilia program, which is widely renowned in the ELCC field and has influenced programs throughout North America. Malaguzzi (1994) also believed that our image of the child is where teaching begins. It governs the way we relate to and observe children, as well as the kinds of environments we create for them. Although the image of the child is seen as foundational in ELCC practices, the instructors in the bridging program felt that the concept’s abstract nature would make it difficult to convey and explore it, so they did not broach the topic until near the end of the second and final year of the program. They introduced the topic by suggesting that the way educators think about children determines how they interact with and plan for them. The instructors then asked participants to brainstorm terms to complete the sentence “Children are ….” PowerPoint slides depicting various photographic images of children were shown and discussed. In the brainstorming exercise, participants described children as innocent, our heart, precious, special, unique, a treasure, a flower, our roots, and our future. Two participants related more specifically to children as learners, describing them as curious and sponges, and another commented that they are like our teachers sometimes. One used the word difficult.

53

CHAPTER 2

Images of children as innocent, precious, and special seem consistent with participants’ concern for helping children to do things and their dismay that children, if left without adult help, might fall and be hurt or be left hungry because they didn’t know how to feed themselves. The research with the immigrant and refugee educators in the bridging program suggested that, for many, the image of the child as capable, knowledgeable, and thus independent may be at odds with their conceptions of children as innocent, precious, unique, and “a treasure.” The participants’ views of the image of the child seemed to be reflected in their perspectives on adult-child relationships as interdependent or more independent, on the role of the adult in play, and on safety, as well as assumptions surrounding autonomy and maturity (Rubin & Chung, 2013). Their image of the child reflected the strong concern and caring they felt and demonstrated for children and implied that they view the child as needing protection. However, because a view of the child as competent, capable, and independent is pervasive in western-based ELCC curriculum, this image of the child was a source of dissonance for immigrant and refugee child care educators in the bridging program. It is noteworthy to point out, however, that such a view did not necessarily mean the participants who shared an image of the child as fragile “gain something from this belief only for themselves,” as Malaguzzi (1994, p. 2) suggested. Rogoff’s (2003) summary of research on children’s responsible roles in communities indicates that, “as children leave the toddler years, in many communities they begin to contribute to the work of their family” (p. 168). As one of the students (Abida from Somalia) explained, in her home country, children as young as 2½ or 3 would be sent to the store to buy tea or other items. She also described the Madrasa religious schools, where young children (aged 2 or 3) would accompany their older brothers and sisters, sit with them, and learn proper school behaviour and some reading and writing. By the time they are 7, she said, they are considered to be adults, and that is when they start school. Abida’s description of expectations of children in her cultural context is consistent with Rogoff’s observation that the expectations of children shift at about age 5 to 7 in many cultures, at which time they are expected to “begin to be responsible and teachable” (p. 170, italics in original) and to contribute to the family’s work and life. The evidence presented by the ethnographies reviewed by Rogoff helps contextualize participants’ view of early childhood as a special time in a child’s life free of obligations and therefore precious. Participants’ recollections of their own childhoods, often without adult supervision, also suggest that as children they got into quite dangerous situations, which they now realize put them at risk. Teresa, from El Salvador, for example, described how as a child she joined hands with other children to form a chain to cross a turbulent river. Teresa was hesitant to share this story with her own children because she did not want them to think that taking such a risk is appropriate or acceptable.

54

CANADA

Learning through Play The value of play in the development and education of young children in institutionalized settings has been emphasized since the establishment of Friedrich Froebel’s first kindergarten more than 150 years ago (Prochner, 2015). Manipulation of Froebelian gifts and participation in making crafts under the strict supervision and direction of the teacher was seen as play that had a particular educational purpose. Although with a different purpose, Maria Montessori also developed a set of play materials to be manipulated by young children with the specific goal of acquiring knowledge of the properties of the objects, such as size and colour, and skills related to these properties, as demonstrated in children’s ability to stack blocks while building towers or sort beads according to their colour. It wasn’t until the first quarter of the 20th century that the nursery school movement, along with reform of the kindergarten movement, brought forth the notion of the value of children’s natural, organic play as a vehicle for young children’s learning in its own right. The publication of the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s developmentally appropriate practice document (Bredekamp, 1987) in the 1980s, however, set a new stage for the development and wide distribution of print resources designed to support the implementation of the learning-throughplay philosophy (Jones & Reynolds, 1992; McKee, 1986; Reynolds & Jones, 1997), and the publication of companion volumes continues (Gestwicki, 2007; Sluss, 2005). In general, play within the DAP construction is considered an antidote to academics in the early years through which a child will be well prepared to enter formal schooling. Thus, the view that play has benefits in different areas of development—intellectual, cognitive, and academic—and should be part of the early childhood curriculum is still prevalent in both ECE theory and practice. Despite the increase in cross-cultural studies on children’s play, the majority of research and accessible literature on play, child development, and childhood comes from the global north and/or industrialized nations (Fleer, Tonyan, Mantilla, & Rivalland, 2009; Penn, 2005). The participants in the bridging program had come from environments in which there was a sharp division between play and learning. Play was described generally as undirected activity by children with other children. The participants referred to rare occasions in their childhood when play involved interaction between children and adults: When I was a child, I played outside freely. We played with our friends and nobody cared about where I went, unlike in Canada. We were free to stay alone from an early age. I spent my childhood as a very happy girl. (Samartha, from Nepal) Although in their experience children played without adult oversight or intervention, the recommendation to use natural materials in their child care centres resonated strongly with the participants. Many creative play experiences with mud, stones, water, branches, and leaves were shared among the participants: 55

CHAPTER 2

In Ethiopia, the coffee ceremony is very important for us. After school when we came back with my friends and my siblings, we went outside. We made some mud, and with mud we made a coffee cup and coffee maker and we had a celebration. And we had popcorn and we made some plates. We made a house with mud, we made bread, we collected leaves and made some sauce. We don’t have play dough like in Canada. Here we have plastic bread. Back home we don’t have that, so we made it with mud. I really enjoyed those times. (Sara from Ethiopia) There we didn’t have anything from the store, everything is from nature and parts that people throw away. We made banana leaves into a ring and watch, things like that. We made them into an airplane, too. We got a small stick, put it inside and you ran and these moved around. (Poe Khu from Burma) Noting the disparity between the participants’ memories of their carefree early play and their very traditional (i.e., didactic) school experiences, as researchers we anticipated that there would be tensions in relation to the learning-through-play pedagogy introduced in the course content. Perhaps because all participants were already working in child care centres, they were aware of the expectation that children would play while in care. However, they had differing attitudes toward the role of learning through play (Chan, 2011). And the idea that they would teach children by playing with them was still foreign to some. When we asked three of the participants if they would play with their own children at home, they said they would not, though they might watch or provide additional materials or resources. As part of the course content, the course instructor explored in detail the kinds of things children could learn through play, using blocks as an example. The instructor was careful to tie the potential learning to both everyday and academic tasks, so in a class discussion, block play was explored in terms of helping children develop social and language skills as well as science, math, and art concepts and various pre-reading skills. It is not surprising, therefore, that the participants whose school/learning experiences were predominantly associated with direct instruction were observed by the class instructor to ask the children questions testing their knowledge while they were playing, such as “What colour is it?” “How many [blocks] do you see?” Based on the participants’ experiences of learning in their own cultural contexts, such direct questions were appropriate since the play with blocks was expected to help children develop mathematical skills (see also Massing, 2015). The tensions arose when the concepts of free play and learning math were put together as learning math through play, which the participants could not reconcile with the experiences they had had as children. Although the participants’ interpretation of the learning-through-play philosophy did not match the dominant (western) view, Feuerstein’s (1980) sociocultural theory of mediated learning experience suggests that adult-child interactions in socialization and cognitive development are most likely to occur in spontaneous free play situations whether they are at home, on the playground, or in the kindergarten classroom (Tzuriel, 1996). The main reason for this, according to Tzuriel (1996), who studied mother-child interactions, is that in a free play 56

CANADA

situation adults assume more responsibility for the interaction and make more effort for mediation than in the structured situation. Human beings learn both from direct exposure to the environment and through mediated learning where “stimuli emitted by the environment are transformed by a mediating agent” (Feuerstein, 1980, pp. 15–16), usually a parent, sibling, or caregiver. Feuerstein argued that what is of the utmost importance is not simply the transmission of culture, but the ability of the human being “to derive maximum benefit from direct exposure to sources of stimulation” (p. 19). The example below demonstrates how one student, Amita, a former high school teacher, mediated a young boy’s mathematical learning during his play with blocks: I noticed Coco was watching the blocks. I went close to him and sat on the floor to play with him. Then we started to make a tower. We counted the blocks and helped each other say “my turn” and “your turn.” Coco was very much interested in making a tower and crashing the tower. We talked about the pictures on the blocks and the difference between smaller and bigger things. I learned about the child. He has different qualities and interests. He can learn when I show him examples [how to roll the play dough, learning about shapes and size]. He can develop these skills through different types of play. I only need to guide and teach him. If I converse with him, he can develop his language skills [saying “roll, roll” “triangle”]. The sociocultural view of learning through interactions with others places shared activities with the teacher and peers in the centre of learning logical relationships between objects and operations. In other words, setting up an environment in which children can explore and manipulate objects is not sufficient for the emergence of logical and/or mathematical thought. Children have to be taught these relationships. Engaging children in mediated learning experiences is one way of making these relationships explicit and thus possible for children to appropriate. PART 3 IMPLICATIONS FOR ECTE IN CANADA

The bridging program was grounded in critical pedagogy as its main purpose was to encourage the participating immigrant and refugee women to voice their knowledges and ideas in order to influence their existing practice and plan proactively for their own futures. Thus, in Freire’s (1970) terms, it aimed at freeing people from the “culture of silence” through an authentic exchange between individuals. Freire’s emphasis on the importance of dialogue in which persons are acting with, rather than on, one another was central to the pedagogical practice in the program. Critical theory’s focus on “how injustice and subjugation shape people’s experiences and understandings of the world” (Patton, 2002, p. 130) was 57

CHAPTER 2

key to understanding how the participants’ double marginalization, first, as recent newcomers to Canada who were not fully integrated into the mainstream society and were still in the early stages of learning English, and second, as child care workers who lacked educational qualifications in the Canadian context, shaped their understandings of their own positions in relation to the professional discourse in ECE and the society at large. Critical pedagogy also allows researchers to rethink the purpose of schooling/education and the ways in which one can fight for social justice. It promotes examination of the relationship between knowledge and power and thus it challenges the traditional theories of education that are based on the view that there is only one way of knowing. The view that all knowledge is shaped within a historical framework, and that this historical perspective provides life and meaning to human experiences, is central to critical pedagogy. Students and their experiences were thus understood as a historical moment under specific circumstances (Darder, Baltodano, & Torres, 2009). In our particular research, understanding and defining culture played an important role. More specifically, our understanding of how the concept of knowledge is connected to culture shaped our interpretation of the views expressed by the participants in the program. Because critical pedagogy has a dialectical view of knowledge, it aims to uncover the relations among cultural norms, values, and standards of the society and the purpose of knowledge. Critical pedagogy therefore tries to create a dialectical understanding of the world through the critical understanding of the hidden effects of power and privilege in a multicultural society that claims to offer equal opportunities to all its members (Darder et al., 2009; McLaren, 2003). In critical pedagogy, in order to know how culture is reproduced and made visible in social relations, it is very important to find out which group or individual has power. In the case of the bridging program, the power of the majority culture was present in two distinct ways. First, in its embodied and personal way, it was present in participants’ daily struggles with the English language and the differences in relation to the everyday cultural practices they encountered as they adjusted to the new Canadian culture. Second, the power of the dominant professional ECE discourse was present in both the policies and practices in the participants’ workplaces and in the course content the participants were exposed to in the bridging program and were expected to learn and apply. This interplay between cultural knowledge and power as experienced by the immigrant and refugee women in the bridging program was made visible in the form of a number of tensions identified earlier in this chapter. In traditional ECTE programs, students are led to believe that knowledge of western developmental theories as authoritative knowledge will transform them into professionals. By foregrounding students’ cultural knowledges, different cultural backgrounds, and life experiences, the bridging program aimed at challenging the common expectation that all students accept the western cultural assumptions based on child development theories. The program exemplified our conviction that “scientific” approaches to child development “necessarily eliminate culturally based understandings about teaching and learning that teacher candidates 58

CANADA

bring to their teacher preparation” (Montecinos, 2004, p. 174). Furthermore, since we believe that it is not only the bodies of knowledge shaping teacher education programs that must be interrogated but also the ways in which instructors and programs represent and impart these understandings to students, we deliberately selected our pedagogical approaches. For example, we minimized the use of PowerPoint because it enhances western authoritative ways of being through its modes of communication and representation, means of organizing information, and forms of representing content and pedagogical approaches, thus displacing immigrant/refugee students’ own indigenous ways of knowing (Kirova, Massing, Prochner, & Cleghorn, in press). Yet, as our study demonstrated, for immigrant or refugee students, some aspects of the dominant discourses in the ECE field were still a source of tension and affected their performance as students. It must also be noted that the learners in the bridging program had specific (English) language needs that shaped the ways in which the ECE content was delivered. As described in the report prepared for the funding ministries (Massing & Shortreed, 2014), the main ECE concepts were identified and illustrated in weekly lesson plans and on-site delivery as key learnings. These key learnings, for both the instructor and the students, were mediated by several factors, including English proficiency, prior educational experiences in home countries and in Canada, past and present work experiences, cultural beliefs and practices, family responsibilities, economic realities, and, in the case of some students, concurrent enrollment in other educational programs. The key learnings were processed immediately after the class between the mentor and student where the same mediating influences were present but with the advantage of a one-to-one interaction. The students then took their understanding of the ideas included in the key learnings to their workplaces and applied it in their practice. This process was further enhanced by additional mediating influences, particularly the child or children involved, but also the physical setting, coworkers and supervisors, families, and professional expectations. All of these interactions occurred within an environment of inquiry, reflection, and cocreation. The learning environment encouraged sharing of personal and cultural experiences with a view to comparing these with professional expectations. It also supported students in reflecting on the course process and providing input about learning strategies that work for them. Students reflected on the effectiveness of their actions in their workplace and brought their reflections back to the classroom. These, along with the instructors’ ongoing reflections, formed the basis for planning subsequent classes in a process that was emergent and recursive (see Figure 2.3). Our research identified important tensions between the dominant ECE discourse and immigrant/refugee cultural knowledges and child-rearing practices they bring to ECTE programs. In addition to identifying the main points of tension, the research also documented approaches to curriculum and pedagogy that have the potential to minimize the impact of these tensions on the immigrant and refugee students’ developing professional identities. However, although the bridging

59

CHAPTER 2

Figure 2.3. The learning process. Source: Massing & Shortreed (2014, p. 10)

program’s instructors worked very hard to bring to the forefront the cultural knowledge and practices of the students in the program, their final remarks regarding the changes they were able to identify demonstrated that the dominant discourse in the ECE field had motivated them to become more “professional” in their practice by appropriating a new way of being and communicating with children. Thus the need to develop what Wilgus (2013) called “alternative canons” (p. 177) must become a task for the entire ECTE field in order for students’ cultural, historical, social, and political knowledges and experiences to be incorporated as legitimate texts. REFERENCES Adair, J. K. (2009). Teaching child of immigrants: A multi-sited ethnographic study of preschool teachers in five U.S. cities (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Arizona State University, Phoenix (UMI No. 3360743). Ali, M. A. (2012). The shadow of colonialism on relations between immigrant parents and their children’s teachers. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 58(2), 198–215. Apple, M. (1995). Education and power (2nd ed.) New York, NY: Routledge. Aubrey, A., David, T., Godfrey, R., & Thompson, L. (2000). Early childhood educational research: Issues in methodology and ethics. New York, NY: Routledge Falmer. Bernhard, J. (2010). From theory to practice: Engaging immigrant parents in their children’s education. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 56(3), 319–334. Bernhard, J. (2012). Stand together or fall apart: Professionals working with immigrant families. Halifax, NS: Fernwood.

60

CANADA Bernheimer, S. (2003). New possibilities for early childhood education: Stories from our nontraditional students. New York, NY: Peter Lang. Blank, J. (2010). Early childhood teacher education: Historical themes and contemporary issues. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 31, 391–405. doi: 10.1080/10901027.2010.523772 Bloor, M., Frankland, J., Thomas, M., & Robson, K. (2001). Focus groups in social research. London, England: SAGE. Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss. Volume 1: Attachment. London, England: Hogarth. Bredekamp, S. (Ed.). (1987). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs serving children from birth through age 8 (Expanded ed.). Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children. Bredekamp, S., & Copple, C. (2009). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children. Chan, A. (2007). Race-based policies in Canada: Education and social context. In R. Joshee & L. Johnson (Eds.), Multicultural education policies in Canada and the United States (pp. 131–145). Vancouver, BC: UBC Press. Chan, A. (2011). Critical multiculturalism: Supporting early childhood teachers to work with diverse immigrant families. International Research in Early Childhood Education, 2(1), 63–75. Chavajay, R., & Rogoff, B. (2002). Schooling and traditional collaborative social organization of problem solving by Mayan mothers and children. Developmental Psychology, 38, 55–66. Child Care Human Resources Sector Council. (2009). Pathways to early childhood education credentialing in Canada. Ottawa, ON: Author. Retrieved from: http://www.ccsc-cssge.ca/sites/ default/files/uploads/Projects-Pubs-Docs/2.1PathwaysCred_MainEN.pdf Citizenship and Immigration Canada. (2010). Evaluation of the language instruction for newcomers to Canada (LINC) program. Ottawa, ON: Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Commission of the European Communities. (1993). Europeans and the family: Results of an opinion survey. Report prepared by N. Malpas and P. Lambert. Brussels, Belgium: Eurobarometer 39. Copple, C. (Ed.). (2003). A world of difference: Readings on teaching young children in a diverse society. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children. Creese, G. (2011). The new African diaspora in Vancouver: Migration, exclusion, and belonging. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press. Creswell, J. W. (2008). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Cunningham Florez, M., & Burt, M. (2001, Oct.). Beginning to work with adult English language learners: Some considerations. Washington, DC: National Center for EAL Literacy Education. Retrieved from: http://www.cal.org/caela/EAL_resources/digests/beginqa.html Dahlberg, G., Moss, P., & Pence, A. (2007). Beyond quality in early childhood education and care: Languages of evaluation (2nd ed.). London, England: Falmer. Darder, A., Baltodano, M., & Torres, R. (2009). Critical pedagogy: An introduction. In A. Darder, M. Baltodano, & R. Torres (Eds.), The critical pedagogy reader (2nd ed.; pp. 1–23). New York, NY: Routledge. DeCapua, A., & Marshall, H. (2010a). Serving ELLs with limited or interrupted education: Education that works. TESOL Journal 1(1), 49–70. doi: 10:5054/tj.2010.214878 DeCapua, A., & Marshall, H. W. (2010b). Students with limited or interrupted formal education in U.S. classrooms. Urban Review, 42, 159–173. doi: 10.1007/s11256-009-0128-z Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children. Eberly, J. L., Joshi, A., & Konzal, J. (2007). Communicating with families across cultures: An investigation of teacher perceptions and practices. The School Community Journal, 17(2), 7–26. Ebrahim, H. (2012). Tensions in incorporating global childhood with early childhood programs: The case of South Africa. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 37(3), 80–86. Espinosa, L. (2010). Getting it right for young children from diverse backgrounds: Applying research to improve practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

61

CHAPTER 2 Evans, R., & Cleghorn, A. (2012). Complex classroom encounters: A South African perspective. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense. Feuerstein, R. (1980). Instrumental enrichment: An intervention program for cognitive modifiability. Baltimore, MD: University Park. Fleer, M., Tonyan, H. A., Mantilla, A. C., & Rivalland, C. M. P. (2009). A cultural-historical analysis of play as an activity setting in early childhood education: Views from research and from teachers. In M. Fleer, M. Hedegaard, & J. Tudge (Eds.), Childhood studies and the impact of globalization: Policies and practices at global and local levels (pp. 292–312). New York, NY: Routledge. Gestwicki, C. (2007). Developmentally appropriate practice: Curriculum and development in early education (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Ghosh, R., & Abdi, A. (2004). Education and the politics of difference: Canadian perspectives. Toronto, ON: Canadian Scholars’ Press. Giroux, H. A. (1991). Beyond the ethics of flag waving: Schooling and citizenship for a critical democracy. The Clearing House, 64(5), 305–308. doi:10.2307/30188623 González, N., Moll, L. C., & Amanti, C. (2005). Introduction: Theorizing practices. In N. González, L. C. Moll, & C. Amanti (Eds.), Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in households, communities, and classrooms (pp. 1–28). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2008). Diversity in early care and education: Honoring differences (5th ed.). Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children. Gupta, A. (2006). Early experiences and personal funds of knowledge and beliefs of immigrant and minority teacher candidates dialog with theories of child development in a teacher education classroom. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 27, 3–18. doi: 10.1080/ 10901020500534224 Hatch, J. A. (Ed.). (2007). Early childhood qualitative research. New York, NY: Routledge. Herr, K., & Anderson, G. L. (2005). The action research dissertation: A guide for students and faculty. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. (2010). Public investment in early childhood education and care in Canada. Gatineau, QC: Author. Retrieved from: http://www.ecdelcc.ca/eng/ecd/ececc/early_childhood_education-eng.pdf Jacobs, E., & Adrien, E. (2012). Canadian child care regulations regarding training and curriculum. In N. Howe & L. Prochner (Eds.), Recent perspectives on early childhood education and care in Canada (pp. 109–146). Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press. James, A., & Prout, A. (1997). Constructing and reconstructing childhood: New directions in the sociological study of childhood (2nd ed.). Oxford, England: Routledge. (Original work published 1990) Jones, E., & Reynolds, G. (1992). The play’s the thing: Teachers’ roles in children’s play. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Kâgitçibasi, Ç. (2007). Family, self, and human development across cultures: Theory and applications (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Kennedy, E. (2008). Connecting writing and speaking with linguistically diverse teacher education students. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 29, 157–171. doi: 10.1080/ 10901020802059532 Kirova, A. (2008). Critical and emerging discourses in multicultural education literature: A review. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 40(1/2), 102–124. Kirova, A., Massing, C., Prochner, L., & Cleghorn, A. (in press). Shaping the “habits of mind” of diverse learners in early childhood teacher education through PowerPoint: An illustrative case. Journal of Pedagogy. Kymlicka, W. (2001). Politics in the vernacular: Nationalism, multiculturalism, and citizenship. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/0199240981.001.0001 Malaguzzi, L. (1994). Your image of the child: Where teaching begins. Retrieved from: http://www.reggioalliance.org/downloads/malaguzzi%3Accie%3A1994.pdf

62

CANADA Massing, C. (2015). Authoring professional identities: Immigrant and refugee women's experiences in an early childhood teacher education program. Canadian Children, 40(1), 73–99. Massing, C. A., & Shortreed, L. (2014). Teaching and learning with immigrant and refugee child care educators. A report prepared for the Alberta Ministry of Human Services, Edmonton, Alberta. McCuaig, K. (2014). Review of early learning frameworks in Canada. Retrieved from: http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/atkinson/UserFiles/File/Resources_Topics/Resources_Topics_Curriculu mPedagogy/Review_of_Early_Learning_Frameworks_in_Canada-all.pdf McKee, J. S. (Ed.). (1986). Play, working partner of growth. Wheaton, MD: Association for Childhood Education International. McLaren, P. (2003). Revolutionary pedagogy in post-revolutionary times: Rethinking the political economy of critical evaluation. In A. D. Baltodams & R. D. Tores (Eds.), The critical pedagogy reader (pp. 151–186). New York, NY: RoutledgeFalmer. Moll, L. C., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory into Practice, 31, 132–141. Montecinos, C. (2004). Paradoxes in multicultural teacher education research: Students of color positioned as objects while ignored as subjects. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 17(2), 167–181. Mukuna, T. E., & Mutsotso, S. N. (2011). Gender inequalities in early childhood development education teaching profession in Kenya. Educational Research, 2(13), 1876–1885. Retrieved from: http://www.interesjournals.org/er/december-2011-vol-2-issue-13/gender-inequalities-in-earlychildhood-development-education-teaching-profession-in-kenya Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2004). Education at a glance. Retrieved from: http://www.oecd.org/edu/skills-beyond-school/educationataglance2004-home.htm Papatheodorou, T. (2010) Being, belonging and becoming: Some worldviews of early childhood in contemporary curricula. Forum on Public Policy Online, 2 (September). Retrieved from: http://forumonpublicpolicy.com/spring2010.vol2010/teaching2010.htl Paradis, J., & Kirova, A. (2014). English second language learners in preschool: Profile effects in their English abilities and the role of home language environment. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 38(4), 342–349. Park, M., McHugh, M., Zong, J., & Batalova, J. (2015). Immigrant and refugee workers in the child care field: Taking a closer look. Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute. Retrieved from: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/immigrant-and-refugee-workers-early-childhood-fieldtaking-closer-look Patton, M. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Penn, H. (2005). Unequal childhoods: Young children’s lives in poor countries. New York, NY: Routledge. Prochner, L. (2015). Tracking kindergarten as a travelling idea. In H. May, K. Nawrotzki, & L. Prochner (Eds.), Kindergarten narratives on Froebelian education: Transnational investigations (pp. 1–12). London, England: Bloomsbury Press. Prochner, L., & Pacini-Ketchabaw, V. (2013). Resituating Canadian early childhood education: An introduction. In V. Pacini-Ketchabaw & L. Prochner (Eds.), Resituating Canadian early childhood education (pp. 1–14). New York, NY: Peter Lang. Reynolds, G., & Jones, E. (1997). Master players: Learning from children at play. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Rubin, K., & Chung, O. (Eds.). (2013). Parenting beliefs, behaviors, and parent-child relations (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Psychology Press. Service Canada. (2015). Early childhood educators and assistants. Retrieved from: http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/qc/job_futures/statistics/4214.shtml - stats Siraj-Blatchford, I., & Siraj-Blatchford, J. (2001). An ethnographic approach to researching young children’s learning. In G. MacNaughton, S. A. Rolfe, & I. Siraj-Blatchford (Eds.), Doing early

63

CHAPTER 2 childhood research: International perspectives on theory and practice (pp. 193–207). Buckingham, England: Open University Press. Sluss, D. J. (2005). Supporting play: Birth through age eight. Clifton Park, NY: Thomson/Delmar Learning. Song, S., & Wang, X. C. (2006). Immigrant parents’ involvement in American schools: Perspectives from Korean mothers. Early Childhood Education Journal, 34(2), 25–132. Statistics Canada. (2010). Projections of the diversity of the Canadian population 2006–2031. Retrieved from: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/91-551-x/91-551-x2010001-eng.pdf Statistics Canada. (2012a). Linguistic characteristics of Canadians: Language, 2011 census of the population. Catalogue no. 98-314-X2011001. Retrieved from: http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/censusrecensement/2011/as-sa/98-314-x/98-314-x2011001-eng.pdf Statistics Canada. (2012b). Population growth in Canada: From 1851–2061. Catalogue no. 98-310X2011003. Retrieved from: http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/as-sa/98-310x/98-310-x2011003_1-eng.pdf Statistics Canada. (2013a). Aboriginal peoples in Canada: First Nations people, Métis, and Inuit. Catalogue no. 99-011-X2011001. Retrieved from: https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2011/assa/99-011-x/99-011-x2011001-eng.cfm Statistics Canada. (2013b). Immigration and ethnocultural diversity in Canada. Table 2: Visible minority population. Catalogue no. 99-010-X2011001. Retrieved from: http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2011/as-sa/99-010-x/2011001/tbl/tbl2-eng.cfm Statistics Canada. (2015, July 1). Canada’s population estimates, age and sex, July 1, 2015. The Daily. Retrieved from: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/150929/dq150929b-eng.htm Stringer, E. T. (2007). Action research (3rd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage. Talbani, A. (1993). Intercultural education and minorities: Policy initiative in Quebec. McGill Journal of Education, 28(3), 407–419. The Muttart Foundation & Langford, R. (2014). Advancing the educational preparation and professional development of Alberta’s early learning and care workforce. Edmonton, AB: The Muttart Foundation. Retrieved from: https://www.muttart.org/report/ Tollefson, J. W., & Tsui, A. B. M. (2004). Contexts of medium-of-instruction policy. In J. W. Tollefson & A. B. M. Tsui (Eds.), Medium of instruction policies: Which agenda? Whose agenda? (pp. 283– 294). Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum. Tzuriel, D. (1996). Mediated learning experience in free-play versus structured situations among preschool low-medium and high SES. Child Development and Care, 126, 57–82. United Nations. (1989). United Nations convention on the rights of the child. Geneva, Switzerland: United Nations Human Rights, Office of the High Commissioner. Retrieved from: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CRC.aspx United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). (2007). The gender socialization process in schools: A cross-national comparison. Prepared by N. P. Stromquist. Retrieved from: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001555/155587e.pdf Wilgus, G. (2013). Postmulticulturalism: Cultivating alternative canons, a critical vernacular, and student-generated understandings of the “lived-situatedness.” In G. Wilgus & M. Blumenreich (Eds.), Knowledge, pedagogy, and postmulticulturalism: Shifting the locus of learning in urban teacher education (pp. 177–194). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1057/ 9781137275905

64

CHAPTER 3

NAMIBIA A Higher Degree Program

INTRODUCTION

Namibia stands as an excellent example of a country in the global south to have been on the receiving end of the spread of dominant early childhood teacher education (ECTE) concepts from the global north. As this chapter shows, the situation is very much in flux; however, there is little to suggest that local or indigenous traditions infuse or underlie the ongoing trend toward a modern system that intends to meet the needs of all, including the most marginalized of rural communities where the local-global tensions are noted through a focus on language issues. Following a brief description of the country’s demographics, the first of this chapter’s three parts describes Namibia’s complex early education policy context. Part 2 discusses the findings of our research, with particular reference to the nature of local-global tensions within a university-based pre- and lower primary teacher education degree program. Part 3 considers the implications of these findings for ECTE in Namibia, pointing to contradictions and tensions in the program with a focus on language issues and the idea of learner-centred teaching. Namibia is a country of some 842,000 square kilometres located in southwest Africa. It borders with Angola, Botswana, and South Africa and, via a thin piece of land formerly referred to as the Caprivi Strip, touches Zambia and Zimbabwe. The population was estimated by the 2011 census to be 2.1 million, making it one of the most sparsely populated countries in Africa due to so much dry and uninhabitable land. Namibia’s population is highly diverse culturally and linguistically, with 13 first languages officially recognized in the national language policy (see Table 3.1) and more than 20 different dialects and unwritten local languages spoken in homes. The country is divided into 14 regions. More than half the population lives in rural towns and villages, mainly in the north and northeast, while the remainder live in urban areas, the largest being the capital city of Windhoek. Other, smaller cities are Swakopmund and Walvis Bay on the coast and Tsumeb in the centre-north. The history of human settlement in Namibia reveals that nomadic people, ancestors of today’s San indigenous groups, lived as hunter-gatherers both inland and along the coast for thousands of years before the arrival, beginning two thousand years ago, of the Nama, Damara, Owambo, and Herero, who migrated from different parts of the African continent. During this precolonial time, the communities lived according to their own social and cultural traditions under the

65

CHAPTER 3

Figure 3.1. Map of Namibia. From: http://www.istockphoto.com/vector/namibia-political-map-gm505918995-44950244 (labelled for commercial reuse)

authority of various kingdoms and chieftains. European travellers started arriving in large numbers in the middle of the 19th century as traders, missionaries, and explorers. In 1884, Namibia was declared a German protectorate, after which came a violent colonial period during which “native reserves” were established, divided along racial lines. German rule ended with the outbreak of World War I, but this was only the beginning of another battle for independence. The apartheid system of segregation that emerged in South Africa led, in 1948, to its enforcement in Namibia as well as in South Africa. As a result of apartheid, Namibia experienced a long era of racial segregation during which many indigenous Namibians had to relocate to reserved areas separated from the living areas of the whites. Namibia gained independence in 1990 after 106 years of first German then South African colonial rule. By then, the long-term damage to African social, economic, and cultural life had disrupted the traditional life of Namibian people, families, and communities, segregating the different cultural groups from each other and unsettling the harmony with which the groups had lived long ago. With independence in 1990, Namibians could then take control and contribute 66

NAMIBIA

meaningfully to the county’s development with the help of foreign aid. However, foreign aid was drastically reduced after 2009, when the World Bank ranked Namibia as an upper-middle-income country able to handle its development with domestic resources. The reality is that Namibia suffers from huge socioeconomic disparities among the different communities, with about 35% of the population living on less than 10 Namibian dollars a day. In addition, about 57,000 children have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS (UNICEF, 2012), adding to the challenges experienced in some marginalized rural communities. As several researchers have shown, the withdrawal of foreign aid has had a serious impact, especially on the early education of marginalized rural children (Dieckmann, Thiem, & Hays, 2014; Matengu, 2016). PART 1 POLICY CONTEXT

The policy context of early childhood and lower primary education in Namibia1 has been in a state of flux since independence in 1990, and is currently undergoing vast changes in organization and development. The policy context as described below refers to two quite different landscapes or settings that are slowly merging in the minds of policy makers and university-based experts in the name of increasing the quality of early childhood education (ECE) throughout the country. First, a large system of informal and semiformal early childhood development (ECD) centres includes child care settings as well as centres that are locally considered as preschools. Second, starting in 2008 the Ministry of Education made provisions for an optional pre-primary year to be housed eventually in all state (government) schools; that goal has yet to be fully achieved. The pre-primary year is open to 5year-old children, but attendance is not mandatory. Formal schooling starts in grade 1 at age 6. The focus of our study in Namibia was on the preparation of teachers for what were then called the pre-primary and lower primary (grades 1–4) phases of early education. In the recently revised curriculum (2015) the structure for basic education is reorganized to include a junior primary phase of pre-primary and grades 1–3. Henceforth, we use the term junior primary to refer to pre-primary through grade 3, with grade 4, which is now part of the senior primary phase, being considered the transition year to instruction in English. Regarding training for the first type of setting just mentioned, ECD training programs have long existed in Namibia operated by nongovernmental organizations and church groups, and more recently by the Namibian College of Open Learning (NAMCOL). Although privately operated ECD centres are common in wealthier urban areas, the vast majority are informal and still adhere to traditional or indigenous African ways of teaching skills, knowledge, and cultural norms in line with local understandings of what is age and gender appropriate for –––––––––––––– 1 The authors are grateful to Marika Matengu, who assisted with the research in Namibia and provided much valuable information relating to ECD policy.

67

CHAPTER 3

young children. This is because the majority of the Namibian population lives in rural areas and embraces traditional African cultures, values, and customs in raising their children.2 This type of informal early education still prevails and is considered important to sustain individual and community life and prosperity (Haihambo, Hengari, & Mushaandja, 2005). With the proliferation of formal, school-based, government-approved pre-primary classes, the ethos of the informal ECD system tends to exist side by side with the dominant discourse that characterizes teacher education for the formal junior primary settings that were the focus of this research. As noted earlier, the dominant discourse emphasizes learnercentred pedagogy, developmentally appropriate practice, and play-based teaching and learning. The preparation of teachers for Namibia’s many different types of early learning settings, both formal and informal, thus varies from virtually none, the minimum requirement being a grade 6 education, to short courses offered by NGOs, NAMCOL, community organizations, and churches, to a bachelor of education program at one of the country’s universities. The first National Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy was launched in 1996; however, until recently, ECD programs were provided outside the formal education system under the auspices of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Child Welfare (now called the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare). To address the need for increased quality in teacher preparation for the junior primary phase, the Ministry of Education is currently in the process of taking on responsibility for both the formal and informal ECD sectors. This includes issues relating to orphans and other vulnerable children. Policy Shifts over Time: From Informal ECD Settings to Formal Pre-primary Classrooms There is considerable policy overlap in Namibia as the country moves toward a formalized national system bringing quality pre-primary education and experiences to all children. For example, since independence in 1990, Namibia has rapidly developed an internationally acknowledged framework for education. It covers a wide spectrum of laws, acts, and policies as well as international legal frameworks that Namibia has ratified. Article 20 of The Constitution of the Republic of Namibia (February 1990) states that all persons have the right to education. This right is further supported in numerous documents and from various perspectives, such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (1990), the Namibian Education Act of 2001, the Education for All National Plan of Action (2001– 2005), the National Policy Options for Educationally Marginalized Children (2000), the National Policy on HIV and AIDS for the Education Sector (2003), the Code of Conduct for Teaching Service (Republic of Namibia, 2004a), the National –––––––––––––– 2 More than half the population of Namibia lives in rural areas (54%). This compares to 18% in Canada and 25% in Colombia (World Bank, 2016).

68

NAMIBIA

Policy on Orphans and Vulnerable Children (Republic of Namibia, 2004c), the 2007 National Plan of Action for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (2006–2010), Vision 2030 (Republic of Namibia, 2004b), the 2007 Education and Training Sector Improvement Programme (2005–2020), and the Namibian Standards for Early Childhood Development Centres (Republic of Namibia, 2012b). The Constitution of the Republic of Namibia (1990) is based on internationally valued democratic principles. It provides the ultimate legal foundation which embraces fundamental rights and freedoms of every citizen regardless of race, colour, ethnic origin, gender, religion, creed, or social or economic status. The Education Act (2001) reinforces the Constitution with regard to the right of education for all citizens in the spirit of accessibility, equity, and democracy. The Education Act makes provision for the establishment of pre-primary classes that are meant to function as a bridge between home and school environments. The Act also provides a framework for a degree of administrative decentralization by stating that parents are to constitute the majority of members on school boards and have the right to devise a local school constitution if it is in the best interest of the learners in the community. This illustrates how Namibia’s overall policy framework embraces values of participation and ownership as well as local control in terms of the education and development of children in specific communities. While there is little evidence to date that this policy translates into action, the intention is clear, in line with current practice in many parts of the minority world such as Canada and the United States, where parents and other community members typically play an important role on local school boards. Another policy that shows the move toward a formal national system that includes pre-primary education is the Education Sector Policy for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (2007). This policy provides a framework for understanding the needs of educationally marginalized communities. It forecasts the future number of vulnerable children, ensuring that education professionals will have the skills and knowledge to work with this reality. The policy, written prior to the upgrading of the teacher colleges to university status in 2011, highlights the importance of building in the necessary competencies among educators during preand in-service teacher training. The competencies include language and communication skills, English, subject mastery, science, technology, and abstract reasoning. The policy states that institutions that prepare teachers shall ensure that these competencies are included in the Teacher Education programme, examined, and that statements of results are endorsed accordingly. No teacher shall qualify in the final year of the Teacher Education programme without displaying adequate competence in these areas. (Republic of Namibia, 2008, p. 21) This policy also encourages parents to be active in their children’s education through membership on school boards, and states that parents “can engage traditional or church leaders or any other trusted member of the community to assist them in filing grievances” (p. 22). In line with traditional African understandings of a parent, the policy expands this concept to include more than 69

CHAPTER 3

biological parents, using the Education Act definition of a parent as “a natural or an adoptive parent or a guardian of any learner,” which includes “any person taking care of or who assumes responsibility for any learner’s education” (Republic of Namibia, 2001, p. 11). Altogether, this policy can be seen as an example of how education can better correspond to the reality on the ground through teacher education. The Move toward a Higher Degree in Teacher Education Training for early childhood (pre-primary) teachers in Namibia is coupled with the education of teachers for grades 1 to 4 and takes place within the four-year undergraduate degree program located on five different campuses throughout the country. The program is coordinated from the capital, Windhoek. Graduates of the bachelor program are qualified to teach in the junior primary phase, with the preprimary classes now being housed in state schools. Although the degree program does not explicitly train teachers for the ECD centres located outside of state schools, conversations with student teachers3 suggested that they might welcome employment in such settings if remuneration were adequate. In addition, graduates of the program are qualified to apply for positions such as regional education officers and curriculum developers within the National Institute for Educational Development (NIED), a directorate within the Ministry of Education. By holding such positions they are able to work toward improving the quality of early education throughout the country as it takes place within the informal system of ECD centres. Education is compulsory in Namibia from age 6 to 16, while pre-primary classes, which are attached to increasing numbers of state primary schools, are optional programs for children in the year prior to grade 1. According to a 2011 UNICEF report, about 2% of children are not enrolled in school (UNICEF, 2011). Approximately 30% of children who are enrolled in primary school do not go on to complete a secondary education (Republic of Namibia, 2011a). Three policy documents are of particular importance to our focus on teacher education for formal, school-based junior primary settings in Namibia: the 2004 Namibia Vision 2030, the Education and Training Sector Improvement Program (2007), and the Fourth National Development Plan 2012/13–2015/16 (2012a), all of which continue to influence the development of new policies and initiatives. The spirit in which these documents were created may be found in the words of former President Sam Nujoma in the first paragraphs of Vision 2030: A national vision is a perception of the future, which reveals and points to something new, beyond what is already available and accessible. The goal of our Vision is to improve the quality of life of the people of Namibia to the level of their counterparts in the developed world, by 2030. (Republic of Namibia, 2004b, p. 9) –––––––––––––– 3 Preservice teachers are commonly called student teachers in Namibia.

70

NAMIBIA

Vision 2030 further highlights that cultural diversity is an advantage, particularly concerning social harmony. It states: “Rich cultural diversity adds depth to Namibia’s capacity, resilience and its quality of life. This diversity of peoples also shows how cultural harmony can be achieved through tolerance and honouring differences” (Republic of Namibia, 2004b, p. 32). Vision 2030 also states that “Namibia should embrace globalization, and not be afraid of or resist it … but rather manage and harness aggressively the opportunities that it offers for optimising Namibia’s comparative and competitive advantages” (p. 33). Here we see the global discourse of investing in ECE for its long-term benefits to national development, as elaborated by Schweinhart et al. (2005) with particular respect to the promises and premises underlying the High/Scope Perry Pre-School Study in the United States and, as later mentioned, to the World Bank’s tendency of spreading early childhood policies worldwide. According to some critics, conceptions of what is good for the world’s children have all too readily been exported from the minority world to the majority world (Penn, 2011; Tabulawa, 2003). The Education and Training Sector Improvement Programme (2006–2011), published in 2007, is subtitled “Planning for a Learning Nation.” The preface of this document states, in the words of then-Minister of Education Nangolo Mbumba: We now know what is working and what is not working. Indeed, it has been shown—quite alarmingly—that too many of our children are not gaining the basic skills of functional literacy and numeracy. Progress towards equity in education has not been rapid enough. More than that, at the current level of performance in education, we will not be producing citizens who are capable of making Namibia a knowledge-based economy as is expected of us in Vision 2030. (Republic of Namibia, 2007a, p. v) This document notes that the strategic objective priorities for ECD and pre-primary education are to deliver capacity and management, ensure quality and effectiveness, and ensure efficiency of resource mobilization and utilization as well as equity and access. Developments to come through provision of pre-primary classrooms to be housed in all state schools are mentioned next: A pre-primary programme, based on an expanded version of the existing school readiness curriculum, should be developed … the capacity to deliver pre-primary has to be increased … through attracting new recruits from vocational and teacher-training and the establishment of a pre-primary career structure. … A parallel programme of classroom construction should be developed as money becomes available. (Republic of Namibia, 2007a, pp. 11–12) The third important document for the present discussion, the Fourth National Development Plan 2012/13–2016/17 (2012a), points out that much still needs to be accomplished:

71

CHAPTER 3

There are no Government-owned ECD centers … no legal regulations for ECD centers … few qualified teachers/educators … severe undervaluation of ECD-trained individuals … investment in ECD is low—although the potential returns of quality ECD have been shown to be very high. (Republic of Namibia, 2012a, p. 47) While this document points again to the promise of returns to society from quality ECD programs, the state of ECD provision in the country was later confirmed by the results of an action research initiative that took place in 2014 in 28 case-study schools in all 14 regions of Namibia (UNESCO, 2015). The study focused on the junior primary grades using practicing teachers who were trained in a series of workshops as co-researchers by university-based instructors. The Ministry of Education strategic plan of 2012–2017 further recommended the transition of ECD centres from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare (MGECW) to the Ministry of Education and the further construction and maintenance of ECD centres, especially to benefit underresourced poor rural communities. Among the benefits of the transition to the Ministry of Education would be the smooth progression from ECD to junior primary through to secondary education, and standardization of the curriculum across the board (as an example of global influence). Within this transition, some elements of ECD were to be strengthened: the linking of vulnerable families to social grants, child welfare grants, social welfare services, parenting education, support for nutrition and health, and the prevention and early detection of children at risk of violence and abuse. While the teacher education degree program has, since 2011, expanded to all five campuses, a parallel system of ECD training continues. As mentioned at the outset, the ethos of the informal system exists side by side with the dominant discourse of the formal pre-primary system that is increasingly lodged in state schools and incorporated into the junior primary phase. This being said, one can see that with the effort to improve quality ECD experiences throughout the country, the discourse of the informal system comes closer and closer to that of the formal system. For example, in 2012 the MGECW published Namibian Standards for Early Childhood Development Centres (Republic of Namibia, 2012b) to regulate operations in the communities. All ECD centres are now required to apply for registration to the nearest office of the MGECW. As with child care accreditation procedures in North America, those applying for registration are also encouraged to carry out a self-evaluation using the assessment form that is available from offices of the ministry and to submit this form with their application for registration. The ministry carries out its own assessment of the centre within three months of the application. The ministry may refuse to register the centre, giving it three months to rectify stipulated shortcomings or face closure, or recommend immediate closure in certain circumstances, such as evident abuse of children, unhealthy or unsafe conditions, incompetent personnel, or a nonfunctioning parent management committee. When a centre is considered to be in compliance with regulations, a certificate is awarded that is valid for five years. Once a centre is registered, its organizer or director receives a copy of the Namibian Standards for ECD Centres. One might ask why this document is not 72

NAMIBIA

provided at the time of application for certification. With regard to occupational standards, an ECD worker must have a contract and a clear job description. The Child Care and Protection Act No. 3 of 2015 states that “the minister responsible for education must administer all matters relating to activities at early childhood development centres registered under this Act” (Republic of Namibia, 2015a). Further to this legislation, the National Agenda for Children 2012–2016 is another policy document that demands action to develop strategies to implement the constitutional mandate on the rights of children. It is of note that the language used in the 2012–2016 national agenda reflects the global discourse of early childhood education, promoting child-centred approaches to development. It states: “The government recognises that education should be grounded in a people/learner-centred pedagogy which values and celebrates learners and students” (Republic of Namibia, 2012c, p. 16). The National Agenda for Children also states that “inclusive strategies are needed to respond to marginal communities and students with special needs” (p. 17), while also addressing nutritional, medical, and social protection matters. In relation to reducing child poverty, the national agenda moves away from targeting orphans, who in many cases were not the most vulnerable due to the fact that in intact rural communities a child is rarely a true orphan (in fact, there is no word for orphan in some African languages in Namibia). Rather, the agenda focuses on reaching a broader group of vulnerable and marginalized children from a human rights perspective. However, the emphasis is on health and HIV-related matters rather than taking a holistic view of child development. Furthermore, while the national agenda expands on aspects of poverty, it does not make links to cultural values or practices except by citing cultural practices in connection with unwanted pregnancies that are harmful to women’s health. The Sector Policy on Inclusive Education published in 2013 continues the long line of policies seeking to address issues of accessibility and equity. Unlike the National Agenda for Children, which has a strong focus on the individual child, the gist of the sector policy is at the system level. Then-Minister of Education Dr. David Namwandi stated: It is my conviction that all children can learn if they are given the necessary care and support. … We acknowledge that there are presently multiple barriers to learning in Namibia: systemic, organizational, pedagogical, curriculum-related, environmental, financial, societal, cultural and attitudinal barriers. Thus, I strongly reject the traditional belief that all barriers to learning are intrinsic to the individual child. … It remains our compelling obligation to eliminate all barriers to learning, and to restructure our education policies and practices for the benefit of all of Namibia’s children, especially the educationally marginalized children. (Republic of Namibia, 2013, p. iii) The minister’s reference to traditional beliefs evidently refers to local or indigenous explanations for negative occurrences. Such things as accidents, sudden illnesses, or a child’s difficulty learning are, in some African communities, 73

CHAPTER 3

explained by evil spirits or a kind of spiritual revenge on the individual for wrongdoing, often to another person (Nsamenang & Tchombe, 2011). The minister emphasizes that implementation of the sector policy “will focus primarily on the adaptation and support required on the full range of education and training services, tertiary institutions, regional education offices, education support services, curriculum and assessment services, and our schools, parents and communities” (Republic of Namibia, 2013, p. iv). This document highlights the need to reorient administrative structures, teacher education, and community engagement in terms of inclusion. But, at the same time, it emerges strongly from the disability sector, emphasizing that aspect of inclusion seemingly at the expense of broader cultural and linguistic diversity issues. For example, one of the strategies suggested in the policy is to revise teacher training to reflect the values and practices of inclusive education; the policy notes that “teachers need to develop a high level of expertise for dealing with learners’ difficulties and disabilities” (p. 30). Since the Education Act was established in 2001, Namibia has undergone a series of reforms focused on addressing two major areas of weakness, namely quality and accessibility. As the latest reports indicate, these concerns are more relevant to specific groups of children, such as those from economically disadvantaged rural communities where poor educational results continue to hamper children from reaching their fullest potential. UNICEF, together with the Ministry of Education, is currently revising the Education Act to bring it into line with the latest developments and current needs of the country’s education system, formal and informal. According to the present minister of education, the planned amendments aim to meet the challenges facing the education sector in order to ensure inclusive and equal access to learning in Namibia. The acknowledgement that early education is a key factor in educational success and long-term national development has steadily grown in Namibia since independence among academics, policy makers, and education administrators. The promotion of early education has been fostered through the work of the Ministry of Education, United Nations organizations and other international NGOs, development projects, collaboration with foreign partners, and academic research. Ideas of the Child, Preschool, and Parents in Policy Theories of child development and learning Our analysis of government and curriculum documents shows a history of policy borrowing from the west (Penn, 2008, 2011; Republic of Namibia, 2014, 2015b). In particular, there has been a significant amount of policy borrowing in terms of theories of child development and prescriptions for good practice based on studies carried out mainly in the United States (e.g., Harms, Clifford, & Cryer, 2005; Schweinhart et al., 2005). However, there are few direct citations of scientific work. In the Pre-primary Teachers’ Manual (Republic of Namibia, 2014), the only direct references are to US textbooks, cited in relation to physical development (a 1999 child development textbook by Laura Berk [p. 2]) and social-emotional 74

NAMIBIA

development (a 1996 child development textbook by J. W. Santrock [p. 7]). And, although there is strong support for learner-centred pedagogies in many education policies, background on the ideas or even adaptations for the Namibian context are generally not provided. This was also the case in India, where child-centred or learner-centred methods were introduced in schools to fit ideological and political aims: Sriprakash (2012) noted that “the pedagogy was under-theorised and oversimplified by the state and external agencies despite being positioned as central to pressing agendas for ‘quality’ education for all” (p. 42). A review of the research publications of African scholars supports the idea that quality early education is closely linked to the particular sociocultural context in which children live (Nsamenang & Tchombe, 2011; Serpell, 2010, 2011; Serpell & Marfo, 2015). While more recent policy statements in Namibia recognize the importance of reaching marginalized cultural groups such as the San (Cwi & Hays, 2011; Haraseb, 2011), the development of socioculturally appropriate and differentiated programs has been difficult, perhaps due to the memory of the apartheid era, when targeted education programs discriminated against the black majority (Cwi & Hays, 2011; Dieckmann, Thiem, Dirkx, & Hays, 2014; National Institute for Educational Development, 2014). More will be said about this in Part 2 of this chapter. Images of the child According to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) and as restated in the 1990 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (Organisation of African Unity, 1990), “every human being below the age of 18” is a child (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 1). For many African communities, however, adulthood starts at puberty, between the ages of 12 and 16, thus by 16 a child is expected to take on the responsibilities of an adult. Images of the child, which in this review are focused on the period from birth to age 6, are reflected in two policy documents: the Pre-primary Syllabus (Republic of Namibia, 2015b) and Pre-primary Teachers’ Manual (Republic of Namibia, 2014). The manual is meant to help teachers “interpret the syllabus and teach the syllabus content” (Republic of Namibia, 2014, p. 1). The pre-primary syllabus considers the child in terms of readiness for formal learning as one who may have had relevant prior experiences; however, the majority of children in Namibia have not had prior experiences that would align with the content of the syllabus. As a result, the objective for the content of the preprimary year is to place all children on the same level in terms of being ready for formal learning in grade 1. This goal suggests a specific body of knowledge to be mastered in order for the child’s mind to be “filled in.” In contrast to the preprimary syllabus, the view of the child in the teachers’ manual is holistic, with the areas of development—cognitive, social, emotional, and physical—integrated. The manual states: Children have physical, social, emotional and cognitive needs to be fulfilled to grow into a fully developed individual. Children do not only need 75

CHAPTER 3

nutrition, exercise and safety, but they also need love and a consistent, caring environment where they can experience positive interaction and get opportunities for developing intellectual capabilities. Programmes that address children’s needs holistically are more effective than programmes that address a single area of development. One of the key principles of child development is that there is an integrated relationship between the developmental areas. Although it is convenient to describe child development as specific development domains and learning areas, this does not reflect the holistic nature of the person. (Republic of Namibia, 2014, p. 2) The teachers’ manual presents teachers with a diverse set of challenges by portraying the child in multiple ways. For example, children are seen to have very different learning styles (e.g., visual, auditory, kinesthetic) and to exhibit different personalities in the classroom. The personalities mentioned include the leader, the demanding child, the frustrated child, the aggressive child, the perfectionist, the emotional child, the daydreamer, and the child with behavioural problems. With regard to the aggressive child, the manual states that this child may come from a home where family members “quarrel and fight a lot” (Republic of Namibia, 2014, p. 11). The teacher is to try to find out the causes of the aggression and find ways to overcome it. The “daydreamer” is seen to “live in a world of his own” and the teacher must try to find out why the daydreaming occurs (pp. 11–12). Although there is much in the manual that stems from the dominant ECE discourse, such as the emphasis on play as a teaching-learning strategy, the manual also speaks to the sociocultural reality of the pre-primary classroom and the lives of the children, and it actively links the responsibility of the teacher to a child’s home-based experiences. It is thus not surprising that teachers in Matengu’s 2016 study were found to consider the manual their “bible.” The bulk of the teachers’ manual outlines a curriculum for the pre-primary year. The themes for Term 1 are myself, my body, my family; for Term 2, my home, my school, my community; and for Term 3, animals, water, plants. The integrating themes for each term are the same: weather, health, safety, and special occasions. It is of note that the content of Theme 1, Term 1 focuses exclusively on Christian religious and moral education, reflecting Christian influences and the widespread African belief that a child is a gift from God (Zimba, 2002).4 While learners are to have a basic understanding of their own beliefs and be tolerant of others, they are deemed to share common positive values (Republic of Namibia, 2014, p. 5). Other religions, such as Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism, are not mentioned. The teacher’s role in relation to the learner Further to images of the child as mentioned above, the emphasis in both the teachers’ manual and the pre-primary syllabus is on such desirable traits and –––––––––––––– 4 Ninety percent of the population of Namibia is Christian, with many practicing “a combination of Christian and indigenous beliefs” (Fox, 2013, p. 171).

76

NAMIBIA

activities as curiosity, inquiring, problem solving, and intrinsic motivation, couched in discussion of the role of the teacher. According to the syllabus, teachers should know and understand how to treat children equally, and all materials should support gender equity. Teachers must be aware of the ways in which boys or girls often become favourites in classroom interaction and ensure that their role as teachers is one that promotes gender equity. There are stereotyped expectations that certain concepts are more difficult for girls. It is therefore essential that the teacher creates motivation and confidence in girls as much as in boys. (Republic of Namibia, 2015b, p. 7) In contrast, the teachers’ manual is designed for teachers who are willing to immerse themselves totally in an approach to pre-school learning that provides the elements needed to establish a high quality Pre-Primary education programme. It is therefore not a set of rigid rules to be followed, but serves as a guide for planning learning experiences in a playful manner. … The activities are participatory, calling the children to learn by doing and exploring. The teacher should ensure that the apparatus and materials required for teaching and learning are ready and at hand when planning an activity. (Republic of Namibia, 2014, p. 10) Again, quoting from the teachers’ manual, the teacher is to create a stimulating, secure atmosphere in her classroom where the child can learn and be happy and confident, applying her/himself to school tasks. The teacher is to interpret the child’s experiences and use the child’s response to questions for further experience and learning … according to the child’s own ability. … The teacher should interact with the children using verbal or non-verbal communication. Verbal communication includes talking to the children, telling stories, asking questions, and giving instructions. Non-verbal communication includes touching, hugging, sitting at eye level with the children, smiling at children. Successful teachers of young children require training, experience, and opportunities for ongoing professional development to support their commitment to working with young children. (Republic of Namibia, 2014, p. 11) There is little indication as to how a teacher is to determine a child’s own ability or preferred learning style within the above rather prescriptive suggestions for how a teacher is to nurture a child’s learning. Despite the advice to individualize attention, it remains the case that any hint of differentiation on the basis of culture or language, for example, is to be avoided. Overall then, the attempt is not to differentiate but to provide the same education for all. This being said, and as reported in a study carried out by Matengu (2016), some differentiation does occur: A few pre-primary documents are made available in some of the local languages. Informally, there is variation in attitude among educators. In one case, an indigenous community was cited where children did not attend school regularly and teachers were advised “not to rush the curriculum” but to make sure the basic 77

CHAPTER 3

competencies were learnt even if it meant leaving out some of the curriculum content. In another instance, a national education administrator stated: You see, in our country, we have a vast country, we have diverse groups, and we have social disparities that are there. And I would like to see, now that we are decentralised, each region to have its own curriculum that is responsive to its needs. … Why should they always adapt to the other side? They also have their ways of doing things. Why can’t they receive education in their context? (Matengu, 2016) School preparedness The pre-primary curriculum, as interpreted in the teachers’ manual, is replete with skills that a child should master to be ready for school: language development, preparatory maths, environmental learning, arts, religious and moral education, and physical development are to be assessed for school readiness. Oral activities, such as singing, reciting poems and rhymes, learning by touching objects, and the teacher asking questions about stories and objects, are mentioned as among the best teaching strategies for use in pre-primary settings. Lesson plans included in the manual clearly represent more of a behaviourist approach than a constructivist one, with much more focus on the teacher asking questions and the child answering than on the teacher prompting the children to ask their own questions in an effort to construct meaning. Child-centredness, learning through play, and holistic development are cited with regard to children’s health and well-being. In 2008, the government of Namibia introduced pre-primary education for children in the year prior to compulsory school age, to be housed in all state schools with the aim of improving school preparedness equally for all children. The pre-primary classes were to be established first in the most vulnerable communities, expanding to all primary schools over a period of several years. In 2015, the Ministry of Education revised the basic education curriculum. Subsequently, with technical and financial support from the European Union and UNICEF, the Education Act is in 2016 under review. According to a Namibian government official, the proposed new Education Act would: contribute to improving efficiency, effectiveness, enhanced teaching and learning environments and learning processes as demonstrated through positive quality learning outcomes for learners at all levels and competencies toward future learning and development … and is expected to contribute to the enhancement of meaningful participation of learners. (UNICEF, 2015) With regard to policy implementation, the introduction to the Pre-primary Teachers’ Manual states: According to experts around the world, necessary protection, appropriate and stimulating care as well as education during the early years gives young children a head start in life. Pre-school education enhances a child’s success in formal schooling and it plays an important role in the total development of a child. Young children learn through experience, discovery and exploration; 78

NAMIBIA

through social interaction with adults and other children and, most importantly, they learn through play. (Republic of Namibia, 2014, p. 1) The teachers’ manual further elaborates that the documents have been designed to guide the children through a learner-centred approach in the most efficient manner according to their own ability to cope with the formal learning situation in primary grades. … The curriculum takes into account the “whole” child, recognising each child’s unique interests, ability, and personality, style of learning and rate of development. (Republic of Namibia, 2014, p. 1) It is interesting to consider that the “new” approaches emerge from “experts around the world” while at the same time the documents do not elaborate at all how these approaches relate to the local ways of child-rearing, or, more specifically, to the most educationally vulnerable communities. In essence, the standard for teaching and learning has largely been borrowed from the internationally promoted western discourse of early education. Home–school relations Earlier it was mentioned that the Education Act (Republic of Namibia, 2001) and later policy documents made provision for parent school boards and a measure of local control, seemingly without attention to the realities of many parents’ lives. In light of this provision, the pre-primary teachers’ manual discusses the importance of relations between the home and the preschool centre within the school setting. Parents are to be invited to be involved in the school, but how they might contribute and what their roles might be is not spelled out. Although teacher educators in our study mentioned with some frequency a lack of interest on the part of parents in being involved in the school, they did so without recognition of the constraints imposed on parents by the demands of subsistence agriculture, the distance of their homes from the school, or the lack of transport. Also, indigenous parents report discrimination in their interactions with school authorities (Dieckmann et al., 2014), and there would be additional constraints due to language barriers. Parents often speak languages other than the official medium of the school setting, but more importantly, especially in the most rural of settings, are often not able to read or write, thus they are unable to familiarize themselves with written documents that would serve to inform them about school-related matters. If a parent does not speak the same language as the teacher, the parent is not likely to feel comfortable visiting the school or being a member of a school board. Although much has been accomplished and attention to the quality of preschool education has resulted in considerable changes to the informal system, the recent study sponsored by UNESCO–China Funds in Trust in collaboration with the University of Namibia and the Ministry of Education paints a rather depressing picture of early education in the most impoverished regions of the country. Published in 2015, the report states:

79

CHAPTER 3

There is an urgent need to increase the number and skills of teachers engaged in pre-school and lower primary education, using both pre-service and inservice education and training. Some teacher educators engaged at this level also need support. (UNESCO, 2015) Policy Challenges According to the UNESCO–China Funds in Trust report (UNESCO, 2015) the main challenges to be addressed with future interventions include teachers’ questioning strategies, the language of instruction (does not match the learners’ home language), use of teaching aids (especially in numeracy), story reading, and management of the preschool environment. Several rural ECD/pre-primary centres were found to have no teaching materials, no play materials, and inappropriate space for the numbers of children. In two preschools, children were not permitted to touch the few books because it was feared they would be damaged. Taking a broad view of the many policy documents reviewed so far, there is a clear evolution in thinking toward a globalized view of how early education ought to be carried out within formal pre-primary classrooms attached to state schools in order to provide a standardized or uniform preparation for all for formal learning that starts in grade 1. In this regard, the two ECE landscapes mentioned at the outset of this chapter seem to be merging into this single vision, with intensive efforts to upgrade many of the informal ECD centres to pre-primary status. There is also, however, a sense that the policy aims at change within a span of a few years. Indeed, the expansion of pre-primary education in countries such as Namibia has been very rapid, often tied to foreign aid and international initiatives of the UN. It would have been impossible for Namibia to aim for its development targets without excessive reliance on policy and implementation plans from other countries. At the same time, as noted earlier, foreign aid to Namibia has been cut due to its rank now as an upper-middle-income country; the school development fund has been removed and secondary education has become free. The teachers’ manual addresses the need for inclusive strategies regarding marginalized communities and children with special needs while advocating a learner-centred approach and learning through play. Simultaneously and in apparent contradiction, the National Agenda for Children 2012–2016 has a strong emphasis on the individual child, while the sector policy (Republic of Namibia, 2013) argues that learning difficulties should not be located within the individual child. Further, it seems that the concept of diversity centres mainly on physical disabilities, such as hearing and visual impairments, while the concept of cultural and linguistic diversity may be perceived as a different and still unfamiliar phenomenon. This suggests that the idea of cultural and/or linguistic diversity may not yet be fully integrated into the worldview of policy makers or even some educators. Except for the occasional rhetoric about the value of diversity, it appears to be a bit of a blind spot in terms of implementation. It may be that policy makers are familiar with the country’s cultural and linguistic diversity, but may not have in-depth understanding of its severe impact on the most marginalized learners. On 80

NAMIBIA

the one hand, the policy makers need to mediate the pressure of global ECD development and the educational needs of the communities. On the other hand, they also tend to lean on the one-size-fits-all approach because it reflects the stand expressed in Vision 2030. To elaborate, Namibia’s language of instruction policy aims to address the country’s extreme linguistic and cultural diversity while insuring access to English for all (Republic of Namibia, 2004c). The policy states that, wherever possible, a home or mother-tongue language is to be used for instructional and communicative purposes in the classroom until grade 4, at which time English becomes the main language of instruction. As Table 3.1 shows, several of Namibia’s 30-plus languages are officially recognized for use in the first three years of schooling (grades 1 to 3); 14 of these languages have a full orthography (Frydman, 2011). It is of note that English is reported as the home language of only 3.4% of the population (Republic of Namibia, 2011b). This means that the majority of teachers are not first-language speakers of English. In contrast, nearly 50% of the population reports Oshiwambo (along with its mutually intelligible dialects) as the home language, while Nama/Damara is reported by about 11% and Afrikaans by 10%5. Other recognized languages for use in the schools include Otjiherero, Kavango, and Caprivi, each reporting home usage by less than 10%, while San and German are reportedly used as the home language by less than 1% of the population (Republic of Namibia, 2011b). As a further policy challenge, it is often the case that Namibian teachers are deployed to teaching positions in rural towns where they do not know the local language well, thus the default language of instruction tends to be English or Afrikaans, even in the ECD centres and junior primary classrooms. Despite official policy, the use of English for instructional purposes in the junior primary years is also supported by pressure from many parents in Namibia, as in several other countries in Africa, mainly due to the fact that English has long been seen as the language of social mobility (Cleghorn, Merritt, & Abagi, 1989; Cleghorn & Prochner, 2010; Evans & Cleghorn, 2012), but also because, as several teacher educators reported, they felt there was no other choice, there being so many different languages represented among the learners in the classroom. The frequency with which the presence of so many languages in a classroom was reported to be a problem supported the earlier suggestion that cultural/linguistic diversity in Namibia has yet to be fully understood as a positive phenomenon. As the findings reported in this chapter suggest, language issues are central to the theme of local and global tensions within the education system in general and among pre-primary and lower primary teacher educators and student teachers in particular. –––––––––––––– 5 Although Afrikaans is reported as the home language of only 10%, it is fairly widely used in Namibia as a lingua franca, or common second language. When teachers are deployed to communities where they do not know the approved school language well, they tend to use English or Afrikaans.

81

CHAPTER 3

PART 2 THE ILLUSTRATIVE CASE: A HIGHER DEGREE IN TEACHER EDUCATION

This section reports the results of our study that focused on a bachelor degree program in junior primary teacher education offered at five different campuses throughout Namibia. The objective at this particular site in our three-country study was to provide in-depth understanding of the ways in which conceptions of what children need to be able to do and know in the early years are played out in teacher education programs in social contexts undergoing social and technological change. In Namibia, as in other southern African countries, such change is coupled with significant government initiatives to develop university programs that compete in content and quality with top-ranked universities in America and Europe. Our interest has been focused on possible tensions between local and global worldviews in the professionalization of a teaching workforce as directed and taught by teacher educators in a multi-site bachelor of education program. Program Description This four-year professional degree program prepares students to teach the basic education years (junior primary grades) and to work in formal school-based and informal pre-primary ECD settings. As noted in Part 1 of this chapter, Namibia is simultaneously working toward upgrading the quality of the informal ECD centres and completing its effort to see each state school offer a formal pre-primary year incorporated into the junior primary phase. Well-trained teachers are needed in both sectors. The reader will recall that it was in 2008 that the Ministry of Education established the pre-primary year to better prepare children aged 5–6 for formal schooling. Entry requirements to the degree program include a pass in five subjects of the National Senior Secondary Certificate, with English as a compulsory subject requiring a grade of C or better. There is also provision for mature age entry, with applicants required to take an English test, a general knowledge test, and a numerical ability test. The expectations of ECTE are best viewed through a document describing courses and regulations (Anonymous, 2015), which states: The mission of teacher education is to provide all the children and young people of Namibia with competent, fully qualified, committed teachers, so that their education is equitable, meaningful, of high quality, and is conducted in a stimulating and supportive atmosphere. Teacher Education for Basic Education will first and foremost meet the needs for professionalization of the teacher—a person who has commitment, a sense of responsibility, and knowledge and skills, which will raise the quality of education through the use of various integrated technologies (TV, video, computers, Internet, etc.) in the entire country. It furthermore will include all competencies of the National Professional Standards of Teachers. (p. 79)

82

NAMIBIA

The bachelor program is taught in English. English is a compulsory subject and all students must take an additional language, of which 13 are offered, including sign language. Graduates from the program must be able to use the additional language for teaching in pre-primary and lower primary classrooms, in line with official language of education policy that advocates, but does not mandate, use of a mother tongue from pre-primary to grade 4. The graduates are also expected to be able to ease the transition for young learners from learning in an indigenous (local) language through grade 3 to learning via English, the country’s official language, starting in grade 4. Table 3.1 shows that among the 13 languages offered in the degree program, one finds Afrikaans, German, English, and several African languages—those most frequently found in Namibia to have a written form. The figures in the right-hand column represent the percentage of the population that reports the language as spoken at home.6 Table 3.1. Namibia’s language groups (2011) Oshiwambo Nama/Damara Afrikaans Otjiherero Kavango Caprivi English German San Other

48.9 11.3 10.5 8.6 8.5 4.8 3.4 0.9 0.9 2.4

Source: Republic of Namibia (2011b)

The curriculum for the teacher education degree is the same for junior primary (pre-primary and grades 1–3) student teachers, consisting of subject-area courses (e.g., math and numeracy, environmental education, arts education), foundations courses (contemporary social issues, educational foundations), courses in pedagogy (science of teaching), psychology (child development, childhood learning), and media (integrated media and technology education). A learner-centred approach is advocated which presupposes that teacher educators have a holistic view of learning, valuing the student teacher’s life experiences as a starting point for their studies (Anonymous, 2015; Nyambe & Wilmot, 2012; Sibuku, 1997). Among the courses that are to be taken in the first semester of the first year are English, contemporary social issues, language in society, children’s literature, mathematics and numeracy development, physical and health education, and arts education. By the fourth year, subjects include school-based studies (a 12-week practicum, detailed below), guidance and counselling, English, a Namibian language, and –––––––––––––– 6 The policy documents use the term mother tongue. Elsewhere we use home language, in line with the recommendations of Benson and Kosonen (2013).

83

CHAPTER 3

learning support for the mathematics classroom. Coursework is supported by supervised teaching practice in years 2, 3, and 4. In the fourth and final year, students spend 12 weeks in schools, at which time they are required to “demonstrate their ability to teach 80 lessons spread across all school subjects in different phases of the school from pre-primary to grade 4” (Anonymous, 2015, p. 96). Also in the fourth year, students may select a career specialization as an elective from a list including assessment and evaluation, curriculum planning, inclusive education, school leadership and management, and early childhood and pre-primary education. Each elective consists of six in-class course hours over a seven-week period. The early childhood and pre-primary elective includes an additional two hours of practice teaching per week for seven weeks (Anonymous, 2015, p. 87). The document describing courses and regulations outlines not only the curriculum framework for all programs and courses but also the guidelines for examinations. In the junior primary degree program, 50% of a student teacher’s final grade is based on formal examination and 50% on continuous assessment of teacher practice. In addition, the National Professional Standards for Teachers lists 14 areas of competence that must be mastered by the end of the four-year degree (Republic of Namibia, 2006). These include subject expertise (e.g., maths, reading, moral development); assessment of learning; health and safety; mentoring of younger teachers; teacher sensitivity; productivity; quality of feedback; regard for learner perspectives; instructional learning formats; language modelling; behaviour management; and concept development. Methodology The research in Namibia was carried out during six visits of two to four weeks’ duration over a three-year period from 2013 to 2016. As mentioned earlier, junior primary teacher education takes place on five different campuses, each rural and semi-rural campus having been upgraded to university status in 2011. The same teacher education program is offered on each campus, allowing for equitable access to a higher degree in teacher education throughout the country. Due to the recent upgrading to university status, many of the teacher educators do not yet hold completed master’s or doctoral degrees. Thus one of the researcher’s tasks while visiting these campuses was to meet with the junior primary lecturers in sessions designed to assist them in developing proposals for their higher degrees, which they were expected to acquire within five years or risk losing their jobs. Although most of the research was carried out at the main teacher education campus in Windhoek, visits were made to three of the four former colleges, located in three different rural towns in the north of the country. Due to the constraints of time and logistics, it was not possible to visit the newest and most southern campus at some 300 kilometres south of the capital. Distances are vast, and transport from one campus to another takes, on average, six hours by road or a short but expensive journey by air. The junior primary teacher education program, because it takes place on all campuses, is coordinated by the department head on the main campus 84

NAMIBIA

in Windhoek. Lecturers who are based at the main campus travel regularly to the satellite campuses to lecture and provide teaching support. The initial meetings and conversations with the seven lecturers on the main campus served to familiarize the researcher with the program, to encourage the department head to take an active part in the research, and to allow the researcher to get to know the lecturers. Several ethnographically inspired qualitative strategies were subsequently used to collect data: unstructured conversation interviews with lecturers and student teachers; observations of student teaching practice; observations in pre-primary and grade 1–3 classrooms taught by regular teachers; and an email questionnaire administered to all the lecturers at the main campus that sought specific information relating to courses taught, text materials used, and preferred teaching approaches. These questionnaires were completed and returned to the researcher as email attachments, and the information they conveyed was integrated into the sections that follow, where relevant. More specifically, methods of data collection included individual formal interviews with the department head and all seven lecturers; informal discussions in small groups; focus group discussions centring on specific issues, such as the dominant discourse of ECE, as outlined earlier; a group showing of the film Babies (Balmés, 2010); and the video Lenses on Diverse Early Childhood Settings, the latter depicting an earlier comparative study of preschools (Cleghorn & Prochner, 2010). Audio recordings were made of visits to classes while lecturers were teaching large groups of student teachers and to classes in nearby schools where student teachers were on teaching practice while also being observed by one or other of the lecturers. Several visits to preschool centres and kindergartens also took place, both within the bounds of regular primary schools and in private settings. The visits to nearby schools were also made in order to observe junior primary student teachers practice teaching under the eye of the regular classroom teacher. In addition, and as reported in Part 1 of this chapter, policy documents were reviewed either directly or in published articles and dissertations that describe Namibia’s early childhood policy history and current policies and planned reforms (Chaka, 1997; Cwi & Hays, 2011; Henok, 2014; Nyambe & Wilmot, 2012; Penn, 2008; Scott, 2013; Sibuku, 1997; Sikongo, 2002). During each discussion interview, an effort was made to direct the conversation to challenges and satisfactions experienced as a lecturer or as a student teacher close to graduation. The purpose here was to open the door to reports of tension or disjunction between long-held beliefs about what children need to know and be able to do in the early years and the students’ encounters with new knowledge (e.g., western ECE discourse), as described earlier. The participants were also encouraged to talk about the paths they had taken to the field of education. Again, the intention was to obtain insight into the ways in which earlier beliefs and teaching experiences might have collided with the new knowledge encountered in the teacher education program. Since most of the lecturers and student teachers were raised in rural areas, it was thought that such questioning might elicit contrasting views between attitudes about children’s learning in the rural past and 85

CHAPTER 3

the urban present, or, stated simply, tensions between the local and the global. The following are typical examples of questions that were posed to lecturers and student teachers and then followed up with numerous probes in subsequent conversational interviews: Do you recall what you thought when you first heard about these ideas: childcentred/learner-centred pedagogy, play-based learning, and developmentally appropriate practice? How did these ideas fit with the ideas you brought to your training in education? Are there any issues with the linguistic diversity of many of Namibia’s classrooms? How does this diversity relate to the policy of teaching via the mother tongue in the first few years? Does mother-tongue instruction occur in the first few years in some of the more homogenous communities? What happens with the shift to English at about grade 4? What in your mind is the best way to encourage an interest in books in young children? What about learning to read as contrasted to reading to learn, especially in communities where it has been possible to use the local language for teaching in the first few years? These conversations often led to personal stories of how the participant came to the education field and particularly to the field of pre- and lower primary education. It was not always easy to steer the conversation to such matters as clashes between prior knowledge about ECE and knowledge gained from training and classroom teaching experience. Conceptual tensions seemed to lie below conscious awareness; beliefs about play-based learning, DAP, and learner-centred teaching were, for the most part, unquestioned. Yet, as the data show, the classroom reality for the lecturers and for the student teachers provided evidence of discomfort, if not dissonance, when faced with such prescriptions for practice. In terms of the researcher’s preliminary expectations of the research in Namibia, the government’s fast-paced effort to upgrade the former teacher colleges to full university status would appear to be a source of rural-urban differences in attitude toward children’s early schooling and thus in itself a source of tension between the local and the global. The reasoning here is complex and will be elaborated more fully in the pages to follow. Briefly, it was thought that attitudes toward children’s development and early learning might differ in the more traditional rural settings from such attitudes in an urban setting since the former teacher colleges are located in rural towns while the main campus is located in Windhoek, a modern urban setting. In addition, while the student teachers who took part in this study were receiving their training at the main campus in Windhoek, most had spent their early lives and schooling in the rural areas. It was also thought that any differences of opinion or attitude between lecturers (teacher educators), student teachers, and regular classroom teachers working in the schools might provide additional sources of information relating to possible local-global tensions. Finally, it was important to cast an ethnographic eye on language of education policy and practice issues,

86

NAMIBIA

due to the fact that despite the diversity of cultures and many local languages in Namibia, English is the sole official language. Although the main purpose of each visit to Namibia was to conduct research, the researcher also offered teaching/research workshops at the main campus and ultimately at three satellite campuses situated in the three small towns located in the north. These one-day workshops provided excellent opportunities to speak informally with many pre- and lower primary lecturers in the former colleges, most of whom were keen to know more about research methods in education. As mentioned above, the government’s plan was to upgrade the former teacher colleges to full university status as quickly as possible, thus the lecturers must have developed proposals for master’s or doctoral degrees by the end of 2016. This matter of capacity building had taken on a degree of urgency. Learner-centred Education Learner-centred pedagogy has long been a controversial topic in many parts of the world and most particularly in developing countries, including Namibia (Amuntenya, 2007; Croft, 2002; Mubita, 1998; Shinyemba, 1999; Sibuku, 1997; van Harmelen, 1998; Wright, 2002). More recently, attention has turned from the analysis of obstacles to the implementation of learner-centred approaches in junior primary classrooms (Nzwala, 2013; Ralaingita, 2008; Schweisfurth, 2011, 2013; Tabulawa, 2013). A reminder of the background to this important worldwide issue is needed first, with particular reference to Namibia. In the foregoing sections we described the extensive and rapid educational reforms that Namibia has tried to implement to improve the overall quality of education and develop the country. Education and teacher educators were seen as playing a transformative role in the development of the country toward equity and a cessation of discrimination based on ethnicity or social class. Learner-centred pedagogy was to be coupled with critical reflection, moving instruction away from teacher-centred (and authoritarian) approaches to child-centred or learner-centred teaching. Many new teacher education programs were established throughout Africa (Ralaingita, 2008). The transition has not been easy and may not actually occur unless the philosophy and prescriptions for learner-centred pedagogy are adapted to the sociocultural context in which teaching takes place (Wright, 2002). Our study thus joins several others which indicate that student teachers understand the theory they have been presented with in their training programs, but as the personal interviews with student teachers and educators as reported below suggest, this understanding does not translate easily into observable practice. The reasons for this are complex and many. First, the majority of teachers and teacher educators were exposed to many years of teacher-centred instruction during their own schooling. This is how they first learned to be teachers; they know that system well, even if they do not agree with it. Second, when student teachers attempt to use a learner-centred approach when on teaching practice, it is reported that regular, more “traditional” classroom teachers do not want the routines they have established in their classrooms 87

CHAPTER 3

disrupted. Third, there is continuing pressure from parents and school inspectors to have children strictly disciplined, something that does not appear to happen with the more friendly approach of learner-centred teaching. More importantly, the approach is objectively not easy to implement when classrooms have few or no resources and sometimes as many as 40 to 60 learners crowded into a single space. Then, as Wright (2002) points out with reference to her research in Eritrea, what appears as rote repetition and chanting may be more than meets the eye: By creating small groups of learners for question and answer routines, a form of individualized attention takes place while linking pedagogy meaningfully to the realities of the classroom and to the sociocultural context. Thus it is no surprise that an important source of tension between local and global worldviews in the professionalization of a teaching workforce, as directed and taught by teacher educators (lecturers) in the degree program, related to the ways in which the lecturers practiced and/or taught about learner-centred pedagogy with student teachers and the student teachers’ understandings of learner-centred pedagogy. Classroom observations suggested that student teachers had trouble applying learner-centred pedagogy in mathematics lessons in the face of perceived language issues. For example, during one lesson, student teachers expressed concern about transferring certain concepts to written form, about using the mother tongue to explain maths concepts, and how to teach when many different mothertongue languages are represented among the learners. After observing this lesson, the researcher took time to talk informally with a group of student teachers. The conversation became lively, with language-related issues quickly coming to the fore. One student teacher very strongly questioned the mother-tongue policy that precedes learning in English. She was not convinced, and cited examples from her own experience, while acknowledging, when asked, that she had not read much about bilingual education or second-language learning theory. Other students talked about the variety of languages that can be found in one classroom and the frustration of trying to reach every student. While English (and sometimes Afrikaans) tends to become the default instructional language, some of the student teachers are not very fluent in English and find it easier to explain ideas in their own home language. Observation of lecturer Tamia’s class offered an example of modelling learnercentred pedagogy in a large class of student teachers. This was a class on child development with students seated in a large auditorium with two interactive white boards located in such a way that students at the back of the room could view the teacher, who taught from a raised platform at the front. Tamia comes from a small village in the north and is fluent in several dialects of a language that would be familiar to many students. She greeted them with evident comfort in her home language and proceeded to use English to teach child development theory, moving back and forth across the podium in an animated way, as if in a theatre. She interacted easily with the students, who shouted and laughed at her demonstrations. The atmosphere was one of enjoyment, suggesting to the researcher that she was observing something close to the cultural expectations of the learners and the

88

NAMIBIA

teacher educator. Large gatherings in Namibia and other African countries tend to be noisy. Lucinda teaches courses in all four years of the bachelor program in such subjects as mathematics and learning support in reading and writing. In her response to the email questionnaire administered to her and the other seven lecturers, she reported that she uses a variety of text materials, including Internet websites, as well as a range of teaching approaches, including lecture, PowerPoint, and student presentations. Lucinda is bilingual in Afrikaans and English. Although the Ministry of Education (then the Ministry of Education and Culture) had advocated learner-centred approaches since 1992, Lucinda reported that student teachers lack personal past experience with learner-centred pedagogy, regardless of whether they attended school before or after independence was achieved in 1990 (Chaka, 1997). (Indeed, the researcher did not observe any instances of learnercentred pedagogy being practiced during the school visits.) Lucinda also reported that it takes time for the students to understand the theory; then they have difficulty implementing their new knowledge during teaching practice, partly because the class sizes are large, with many desks that are not easily converted to a small-group structure that would allow for more learner-centred instruction. More to the point, as mentioned earlier, regular class teachers who act as mentors during teaching practice often do not want the student teachers to “change things too much,” that is, to deviate from the class teacher’s usual teaching approach, which was repeatedly observed to be teacher-centred. When asked about challenges as a teacher educator, Lucinda observed that it is sometimes difficult “to break down the way student teachers are accustomed to doing things.” Here it was evident that teacher education is seen as a process of assimilating student teachers to the predominantly western concepts and theories (dominant discourse) of ECE, rather than as a process of incorporating old or local knowledge alongside new knowledge, which a pedagogy of reflective practice might have engendered (Zeichner & Liston, 2013). Lucinda was not then aware of African indigenous and potentially language-linked ways of teaching mathematics to future teachers, as in the ethno-mathematics work of Paulo Gerdes (2005) or Gear (2012). Another lecturer, Tessa, reiterated what Lucinda had to say by noting that it is difficult to bridge the gap between what she wants the student teachers to know and what they think they need to know. According to Tessa, the attitude of the student teachers is “just teach them” (letter recognition and the like), suggesting that their view of teaching young children is not learner-centred but rather somewhat formulaic, perhaps leaning toward the rote and memorization system that they themselves may have experienced as young learners. In contrast to the views of Lucinda and Tessa, two of the six student teachers interviewed exhibited a thorough understanding of what it means to be learner centred. Samuel came to the bachelor degree program after 15 years as an uncertified teacher in one of Namibia’s marginalized indigenous communities. Samuel says that he has always taught—including his siblings and children in his home community who were struggling. Rather than considering taking a master’s degree after graduating from the degree program, Samuel is anxious to return to the 89

CHAPTER 3

same community and continue teaching “until he dies.” He has taught all grade levels. In his teaching practice he surprised the supervising teacher educator by getting on the floor with the pre-primary children. He noted that the teacher mentors (regular classroom teachers) give him poor assessments because they do not like the fact that he tries to practice learner-centred teaching, confirming the impression that learner-centred teaching encounters resistance at the level of classroom implementation. When Samuel was asked if or how his ideas about teaching children have changed since he came into the bachelor program, he mentioned that the courses in child development have helped him see that “children need to make noise and they need hugs.” He is saddened by the lack of children’s reading materials in the schools, noting that books are not yet part of the culture in Namibia in general and in the rural areas in particular. He said, “they come from elsewhere,” meaning they are a foreign implant. Joseph is the second student teacher to show a good understanding of learnercentred pedagogy. As a young learner, Joseph had been taught in English with Afrikaans as the second language, his home language being spoken by a very small minority (thus no teacher was likely to be able to use it for teaching in the early grades). Joseph had begun his university education in another field, but switched to education due to the availability of government funding for tuition. At first he was disappointed to make the change, but when asked if or how his ideas have developed since coming to the education field, he said he used to think that teaching would be the easiest profession, but now he thinks it is not only the most difficult but also the most important. Joseph talked about several problems in the education system that could be characterized as sources of local-global tension or instructional dissonance (Evans & Cleghorn, 2012); however, his comments also show his good understanding of the need for child-centred pedagogy. For example, he noted that the subject periods are too short, causing repeated interruptions for getting ideas across to young children, with no chance to follow through with children who need more time and individual attention. He also observed that the curriculum prescribes competencies to be achieved by specific ages, but these do not fit with the actual abilities of learners to read or write. He attributed this to the fact that the learners need longer to solidify their understanding and reading/writing abilities in English. Due to the inconsistency with which the mother tongue policy is implemented in the junior primary grades and the abrupt switch to English at grade 4, Joseph said that learners are not able to read efficiently in English or in a home language by grade 4 or 5. When Joseph was asked about ways that indigenous knowledge might be incorporated into the school day, if not into the curriculum, he said there is not much chance of this happening with a national curriculum with prescribed competencies. As an aside, he said that in his home community, people are cattle herders, but the curriculum does not reflect their lives.

90

NAMIBIA

Language The topic of language arose in several ways: matching teachers’ ability to use local languages for teaching in accordance with official policy; as a problem for teaching in linguistically mixed classrooms; and with reference to teaching reading in light of the need to establish a “reading culture.” Katia is a bilingual lecturer, literate in her home language and English, her home language being one of the least widely spoken languages in Namibia. Her experience illustrates how very complex the language of schooling is in Namibia. Katia started school in what was then a peri-urban township under the apartheid regime of colonization by South Africa. At that time there were different schools for the different language groups, and the regions were divided by location for each group’s residence. These divisions actually allowed Katia to be taught in her home language for counting and story telling through grade 3. From grade 4 until the end of grade 8, she was taught in Afrikaans. For grades 9 to 12, Katia attended school in Namibia’s northwest region, where teaching was via the local language mixed via code switching, with Afrikaans. While living in that region, she was able to become literate in her home language because of a German-speaking teacher who knew the language but nevertheless used English to teach it. Katia reported that the orthography of her home language has been modified so that it is now easier to read than previously, when the written form of the language did not closely match the sound. Katia reported that as a lecturer she works closely with seven student teachers to prepare them to use this particular language for teaching in the early grades, but as she says, “the country needs at least 100 such teachers or the language will be lost.” Katia is passionate about keeping her language alive because “when the language dies, so does the culture; then we lose the children.” Katia promotes this language with communities and parent groups directly and through radio broadcasts. She feels she is successful in conveying the importance of keeping alive the indigenous knowledges that exist only in the home language and which do not translate easily to English. Katia was the only lecturer to mention indigenous knowledge and its link to language. The lack of a reading culture in Namibia was mentioned by several lecturers and a few student teachers. Two lecturers linked language issues to the need for establishing a reading culture, as well as the need for appropriate children’s books to be placed in classrooms. Tessa, who is fluent in English, comes from an Afrikaans-speaking family where hard work on the farm was more valued than school-based learning. She reported one childhood episode during which she was severely scolded by a parent for taking time out from chores to read a schoolbook that really interested her. Despite the scolding, her love of books flourished and found its way into her parenting, along with insistence that her own children be well educated. Economic circumstances interrupted her postsecondary education as did raising a family, but she persisted by taking courses by distance. In time, she earned a teaching diploma and two postsecondary degrees. Tessa is really concerned about how to create a reading culture among student teachers. In response to the email questionnaire sent to all lecturers, she reported 91

CHAPTER 3

that she uses a variety of text materials and teaching approaches for training student teachers in order for them to introduce learners to storybooks and to teach reading. In line with the idea referred to earlier of perceived difficulties connecting student teachers’ new knowledge to practice in the classroom, Tessa reported that one of her biggest challenges with student teachers is generating interest in developing home-language text materials (visual, drawn, or written). She noted that student teachers are not very interested in creating a book corner in the classroom and do not easily see the point of reading aloud to young children; this may be due to the fact that their past exposure to story telling was likely oral. Although the student teachers come from many different language backgrounds, according to Tessa, they “seem more intent on teaching via English.” Tessa is presently engaged in a research project to increase the number of student- and teacher-written storybooks for use in pre- and lower primary classrooms. Teacher educator Samia echoed Tessa’s sentiments with regard to the challenge of generating interest among student teachers in children’s books and reading. In response to the emailed questionnaire, Samia reported that she also uses a variety of text materials in her teaching of Afrikaans, one of the languages that student teachers may choose to study. She provided a unique and learner-centred description of her preferred teaching approach. She said that she avoids “modern” technology in favour of playing classical music while reading stories, in Afrikaans, to the student teachers. She also teaches from Afrikaans school textbooks so that the student teachers acquire the basic grammar they will need to teach in the junior primary grades. During the researcher’s attendance in one of Samia’s story-telling classes, she understood not a word of Afrikaans, however she felt as this small group of 16 student teachers appeared to feel: spellbound. In Samia’s view, the language problem lies in the fact that the student teachers do not really have the vocabulary in their respective home languages to use for academic purposes. In this regard her opinion aligns with current theory in second language learning that home languages need to be used in school much longer than three or four years in order for academic literacy to be well established (Alexander & Bloch, 2004; Benson & Kosonen, 2013; Cummins & Hornberger, 2007). Samia has had Namibian-authored English-language children’s books translated into several Namibian languages and has worked hard to bring such books into the schools, to little avail so far, although there is reportedly a current initiative on the part of UNICEF to “flood the schools” with appropriate children’s books. In another vein, and with reference to the policy of using home languages for instruction in the first few years, Lucinda also identified language as a problem. She felt that some subjects, such as mathematics, do not lend themselves to being taught in the mother tongue “because the languages are not fully developed” and many of the student teachers do not have a sufficiently developed knowledge of their own mother tongue to use it for teaching. This too explains why the policy relating to the use of a mother tongue in the first few years does not work well. In contrast to the views of some lecturers, several of the student teachers mentioned concerns about teaching children reading in light of the paucity of reading materials available in the schools. It was also during discussions about 92

NAMIBIA

language issues that further evidence emerged with regard to student teachers’ deep understanding of learner-centred pedagogy, as the following examples show. Jane, Mary, Rachel, and Mona are student teachers who came from different parts of the country and different professional fields before entering education: nursing, social work, medical technology, and a religious order. Each young woman exhibited a deep understanding of children and sensitivity toward individual needs, again pointing to an understanding of learner-centred pedagogy. Jane and Mary came from one of Namibia’s largest language groups and spoke it as their home language. It had been used in their schooling as the instructional language until grade 4 and mixed via code switching with English thereafter. Jane and Mary reported that during their own early schooling, when teachers needed to explain complex ideas they used the home language, suggesting that in this case the language was well enough known by teachers and learners to use for such explanations. Nevertheless, they reported that their school principal insisted that English be used, even on the playground; learners risked being punished by being assigned to clean the classrooms if caught speaking their home language. Mary reported another source of tension: text materials in the junior primary years were in English but instruction was a mix of the home language and English. Both young women expressed empathy for learners who were struggling to learn, and reported feeling frustrated when a mentoring (classroom) teacher told them to “ignore that one,” referring to a child who was considered a “slow learner.” Instead of ignoring the child, during her teaching practice, Jane offered the child remedial lessons after school, staying until she was the last to leave the premises. Mary observed that inclusive education is a good philosophy but hard to implement. She said that by the end of the school day she needs to know she has done her best “to make a difference.” When asked how best to encourage reading, Jane said to let the learners choose a book and then read to them, while Mary added that a teacher can get children interested by having them guess the ending of a story. Mary also observed that often the books do not reflect the children’s home culture and more culturally relevant books are needed. Despite the paucity of teaching materials in the more impoverished schools, she wants to return to her village to teach. Language differences were at the heart of student teacher Rachel’s early experience in school. She was born in the north of the country and moved to a small city in the south, where she attended school from grades 1 to 12. Her home language was a dialect from the north, but the language of instruction at school was Afrikaans, which she found difficult. The teacher advised her parents to use Afrikaans at home so that she would understand at school. They did so until she performed better in school, then stopped when her father insisted on using the mother tongue at home from that time onwards. Her father was a well-educated professional who insisted that his children take books out of the local library and then talk about what they read. Rachel reported that she learned a lot from her teaching practice, not all of it positive, and reported some strict discipline. At one school the gates were closed to children who arrived late; that day they were excluded from learning. In another school the teachers did not let the children touch the books for fear they would damage them. Rachel felt they needed books to 93

CHAPTER 3

look at and even pretend to be reading. Clearly, she had a sense of what it is for a child to develop an identity as a reader. Mona was brought up in a small city on the coast of Namibia with relatives who lived in a town a few kilometres inland. She had started her higher education at a technical college, but switched to education to relieve her parents from the burden of paying tuition. About children’s behaviour, she said that if you model the behaviour you want from children, you get it. Her teaching practice has been at a school where a relative was the principal. The children were very poor and most teachers unqualified. She reported that one child came to school just in time for the feeding program, then took the food back home where he lived with his grandfather—this was their only meal of the day. When asked if or how her ideas had changed since coming to the teacher education program, she noted that while she had learned about the concepts of DAP and child-centred pedagogy, they are not practiced in the schools and such ideas are not understood by many parents either. She then reported that she puts these ideas into practice with the children of a relative who “did not know that parents need to do things at home to help their children in school.” As examples, she mentioned pointing out environmental print to children, having them help make shopping lists, buying picture books for preschoolers, and the like. PART 3 IMPLICATIONS FOR ECTE IN NAMIBIA

The word contradiction would summarize the content of the discussion interviews held with two male and four female fourth-year student teachers, because of the marked contrast with some of the views expressed by their lecturers (teacher educators). All six student teachers expressed strong learner-centred views: each exhibited an impressive and deep understanding of childhood, of what it means to be a young learner, and of the importance of teaching in ways that attend to individual needs. There was also a contradiction and possible source of dissonance between the student teachers’ views of learner-centred pedagogy and the views of the classroom teachers who were to mentor them during teaching practice. The student teachers reported that the classroom teachers (mentors) often did not seem to understand learner-centred pedagogy and did not want to see it practiced in their classrooms. It was apparent that the prevailing teaching approach in many pre- and lower primary classrooms, as used by teachers who are older, less fully trained, and “traditional” in their ways, is one of rote, repetition, discipline, and control; this conclusion was borne out by several of the classroom observations carried out in schools, as reported earlier. The word traditional is not meant to imply that such teaching is to any extent indigenous in cultural content; rather, the style of teaching may be a vestige of a harshly imposed and authoritarian colonial system during which teacher education was minimal and built on the effects of an impoverished school system. Finally, another contradiction or source of dissonance was the felt lack of 94

NAMIBIA

coherence between the language of instruction policy and actual practice, much as described by the lecturers and student teachers in the paragraphs above. It remains clear that learner-centred pedagogy has yet to be fully implemented in Namibia throughout the preparation of student teachers and in classroom practice. As the foregoing contradictions between the classroom mentoring teachers’ views and those of the student teachers who understood well what was expected of them indicate, the methodology of learner-centred pedagogy was simply not aligned with long-standing, culturally determined classroom practices. The frequency with which language issues were raised by lecturers and student teachers is striking. A serious source of difficulty for learners and their teachers would seem to stem from the fact that when home languages are used in the early years, they are not used long enough for literacy to be well established in reading or in writing. This may well account for the significantly poorer reading abilities of rural learners as compared to urban learners, most of whom have been exposed more consistently to instruction in English by trained teachers (Republic of Namibia, 2011a). Next, there appears to be very little recognition in policy or among teacher educators of the many transitions or border crossings that Namibian learners experience, especially when they first go to school (Cleghorn & Prochner, 2003; Giroux, 1992). These include the transition from informal to formal education, from home culture to school culture, from rural and marginalized contexts to urban and modern contexts, from the language used at home to the school’s language, and from teacher-centred or more conventional teaching approaches to learnercentred approaches, where these actually exist. Yet, these transitions establish the context of experience that may well explain the source of bewilderment for many young learners, as well as for the teacher who may not understand “where the child is coming from,” a major theoretical tenet of child-centred pedagogy. For marginalized children in remote communities for whom these transitions are likely extreme, the experience may amount to one of injustice. Furthermore, there has been no mention during this study of learning a second or additional language as contrasted to using a newly acquired language for learning. That is, no mention was made of ways in which the transition may be managed from instruction during the junior primary phase in one of Namibia’s approved school languages to instruction in English in grade 4. Because it is typically at the grade 4 level when children are expected to be able to read well enough to obtain information from text materials on their own, more knowledge about the principles of second/additional language learning would seem to be an important focus for curriculum change in the junior primary teacher education programs. In fact, there is recent evidence from many parts of the world that learning would be greatly facilitated if home or mother tongue languages were used for instruction for as long as five to seven years. This would allow for literacy to be established prior to learning in an international language such as English (Benson & Kosonen, 2013; Cummins & Hornberger, 2007; Wolfaardt, 2005). More than one teacher educator reported that it is difficult to get student teachers to move from what they already know to applying their new knowledge in 95

CHAPTER 3

the classroom, yet, as the student teachers in this study reported, classroom teachers do not want “new methods” brought into their classrooms. Nevertheless, if the context of past experience as a student was teacher centred, authoritarian, and given to “rote and repeat” instruction, it would be understandable if a student teacher finds it difficult not to do the same, unless that tendency has been counteracted by considerable reflective practice (Zeichner & Liston, 2013). Another apparent contrast between the views of the teacher educators and student teachers relates to indigenous knowledge. It was the student teacher Joseph who observed that a standard nationwide curriculum with prescribed competencies does not allow for indigenous knowledge to find its way into the classroom, with the result that many, if not most, rural children in Namibia are not likely to “find themselves” in the text materials or content of schooling. And it was the lecturer Katia who made a strong link between her home language and the unique indigenous knowledge embedded in that language. Although the number of participants in this study is small, there are some striking differences between the lecturers’ and the student teachers’ views of the teaching enterprise. The student teachers seem to have a much more highly developed sense of what it is to be a child learner than some of the lecturers realize. It may be that the theory being imparted in the teacher education program is conceptually disconnected from practice, but the student teachers seem to “get it,” both from their lectures and their practice, despite reports to the contrary. The lecturers and student teachers may well understand the dominant discourse in ECE, but we ask if this is at the expense of indigenous knowledges that may be associated with local languages. Only one lecturer and one student teacher were acutely aware of this matter. Finally, with regard to the dominant discourse of ECE, it is striking that the word play as a pedagogical concept only arose once and that was indirectly; this was from the student teacher who reported getting onto the floor with the children during teaching practice. Indigenous knowledge and related language and cultural issues have been and are being addressed in the research and academic publications of several Namibian university instructors, often drawing on a large body of knowledge from other countries in the southern African region (Frydman, 2011; Nyambe & Wilmot, 2012; Wolfaardt, 2005; Zimba, 1994, 2002; Zimba & Otaala, 1993, 1995). Zimba (2002), for example, uses the term indigenous to refer to conceptions of childhood and development that originate from particular communities to bring about and sustain specific ways of existence and being (p. 91). This conception of child development is one that emphasizes human solidarity, oneness, and orientation to others and is prosocial and group based, with values of respect, obedience, cooperation, hard work, helpfulness, hospitality, honesty, peace, and responsibility (Zimba, 2002, p. 94), very much reminiscent of LeVine’s (2003) pediatric model outlined earlier in this book. Growing up, work, and learning are not separated; however, there are still fairly sharp distinctions in several African countries, including Namibia, in the socialization of girls and boys, a topic that needs more attention than we had time for in this study. Girls’ contribution to the family and community economy is centred on household tasks, while boys, in the rural areas 96

NAMIBIA

especially, require learning to herd goats and cattle at a very early age. According to Professor Zimba (personal communication, April 12, 2016), girls learn a multiplicity of tasks in the early years that prepare them for school (counting, measuring, weighing, planning, following verbal directions from adult women) and, in literate households, are exposed to written words in environmental print, such as shopping lists. Thus schooling for young girls has links to what has been learned at home. In contrast, boys’ herding work is carried out in relative isolation, with activities that have fewer applications to school readiness—spatial organization and counting heads being exceptions. According to Zimba and Otaala (1995), these differences in gender socialization may explain why boys drop out of school in much greater numbers and earlier than girls. In sum, the question of what role local languages and indigenous knowledge should play in the schooling and “development scene” of Namibia, and why, may be crucial. As the scholars cited above observe, this question is constantly present, yet not openly discussed. As Sam Nujoma (2004) pointed out in Vision 2030, Namibia aims for its citizens to “be at the level of their counterparts in the developed world” (p. 9). Is this to be achieved at the expense of diversity, even as the so-called developed countries are increasingly diverse and increasingly concerned with ways to incorporate multicultural and multilingual policies within school systems? Is development to be seen in comparison to the “developed countries,” or should it be seen as development in context, defined by the people themselves? In what way can a learner-centred approach not attend to diversity? What implications do these points have for policy makers and for those who are training the country’s educators? The findings reported in this chapter remain tentative, suggesting that as teacher education reform continues as an ongoing process, a closer look over an extended period of time is needed. As reported in the discussion above, these findings need to be corroborated with follow-up discussions with the teacher educators so that the systemic contradictions noted in this study may be addressed in due course. There are also additional data still to be considered with particular regard to the prior knowledges, languages, and other abilities of mature student teachers who are accepted into the program in the first year. All mature applicants must have at least five years’ teaching experience. Many applicants are from the rural areas and may ultimately be expected to teach in a local language, in line with official policy; however, the mature entry test appears in English and responses are to be in English. Several contradictions between policy and practice have come to light in this study—most notably, prescriptions for learner-centred practice and language of instruction issues. As Nyambe and Wilmot (2012) observed, there is significant tension associated with the global model of learner-centred teaching, imposed as that has been through international organizations in the minority world, and the still-authoritarian postcolonial system of education in Namibia. These observations confirm what several African scholars have argued: At a systemic level in several countries, including Namibia, competing discourses operate simultaneously, effectively undermining the important aims of teacher education reform. Our 97

CHAPTER 3

analysis of policy documents illustrates some likely sources of these tensions. In conclusion, as the interventions stemming from the results of the 2014 UNESCO– China Funds in Trust project are implemented over the coming months and years, the anticipated reforms to junior primary teacher education and practice would be well served by paying closer attention to the voices of Namibian and other African scholars. REFERENCES Alexander, N., & Bloch, C. (2004). Feeling at home with literacy in the mother tongue. Unpublished paper presented at the 2004 International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) conference, Cape Town, South Africa. Altbach, P., & Knight, J. (2007). The internationalization of higher education: Motivations and realities. Journal of Studies in International Education, 11(3), 290–305. Anonymous. (2015). Courses and regulations. Balmés, T. (Director). (2010). Babies [motion picture]. Issy-les-Moulineaux, France: Studio Canal. Benson, C. & Kosonen, K. (Eds.). (2013). Language issues in comparative education: Inclusive teaching and learning in non-dominant languages and cultures. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense. Chaka, M. V. (1997). Learner-centered education in Namibia: A case study (Unpublished master’s thesis). University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. Cleghorn, A., Merritt, M., & Abagi, O. (1989). Language policy and science instruction in Kenyan primary schools. Comparative Education Review, 33, 1, 21–39. Cleghorn, A., & Prochner, L. (Producers). (2009). Lenses on diverse early childhood settings [DVD]. (Available from A. Cleghorn, Concordia University, Montreal) Cleghorn, A., & Prochner, L. (2010). Shades of globalization in three early childhood settings: Views from India, South Africa, and Canada. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense. Cummins, J., & Hornberger, N. (Eds.). (2007). Encyclopedia of language and education (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Springer. Cwi, C., & Hays, J. (2011). The Nyae Nyae village schools 1994–2010: An indigenous mother-tongue education project after 15 years. Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education, 5, 142–148. Dieckmann, U., Thiem, M., Dirkx, E., & Hays, J. (2014). ‘Scraping the pot’: San in Namibia two decades after independence. Windhoek, Namibia: Legal Assistance Centre/Desert Research Foundation of Namibia. Retrieved from: http://www.lac.org.na/projects/lead/Pdf/scraping_front.pdf Ebrahim, H. (2012). Tensions in incorporating global childhood with early childhood programs: The case of South Africa. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 37, 3, 80–86. Evans, R., & Cleghorn, A. (2012). Complex classroom encounters: A South African perspective. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense. Fox, J. (2013). An introduction to religion and politics: Theory and practice. Abingdon, England: Routledge. Frydman, J. (2011). A critical analysis of Namibia’s English-only language policy. In E. G. Bokamba, R. K. Shosted, & B. T. Ayalew (Eds.), Proceedings of the 40th annual conference on African linguistics (pp. 178–189). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press. Retrieved from: http://www.lingref.com/cpp/acal/40/paper2574.pdf Gear, A. (2012). A cultural introduction to math. Teaching children mathematics, 18(6), 354–360. Gerdes, P. (2005). Ethnomathematics, geometry, and educational experiences in Africa. Africa Development, 30(3), 48–65. Haihambo, C., Hengari, M., & Mushaandja, J. (2005). Children with special needs in early childhood education centres. Windhoek, Namibia: Republic of Namibia Ministry of Gender, Equality, and Child Welfare.

98

NAMIBIA Haraseb, V. (2011). Early childhood education for the San in Namibia: The working group of Indigenous Minorities Development Program. Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education: Studies of Migration, Integration, Equity, and Cultural Survival, 5(2), 135–141. Harms, T., Clifford, R. M., & Cryer, D. (2005). Early childhood environment rating scale (rev. ed.). New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Henok, P. (2014). Literacy practices at home and in preschool settings in the Khomas education region in Namibia (unpublished master’s thesis), University of Namibia, Windhoek. LeVine, R. A. (2003). Childhood socialization: Comparative studies of parenting, learning, and educational change. Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Center, University of Hong Kong. Matengu, M. (2016). Between the rock and the hard place: Teachers as cultural mediators in the provision of meaningful early childhood education in marginalized contexts. Unpublished manuscript. Nsamenang, B., & Tchombe, T. M. S. (2011). Handbook of African educational theories and practices: A generative teacher education curriculum. Bamenda, Cameroon: Human Development Research Center. Nujoma, S. (2004). President’s foreword. In Republic of Namibia, Namibia vision 2030 (pp. 9–12). Windhoek, Namibia: Office of the President. Retrieved from: http://www.gov.na/documents/10181/ 12976/President_forward.pdf/11ebc93f-02b0-4bce-b238-cf287d29d608 Nyambe, J., & Wilmot, D. (2012). New pedagogy, old pedagogic structures: A fork-tongued discourse in Namibian teacher education reform. Journal of Education, 55, 55–81. Nzwala, K. (2013). Methods of teaching reading to beginners. Reform Forum: Journal for Educational Reform in Namibia, 21, 2–8. Organisation of African Unity. (1990). African charter on the rights and welfare of the child. Retrieved from: http://www.unicef.org/esaro/African_Charter_articles_in_full.pdf Penn, H. (2008). Working on the impossible: Early childhood policies in Namibia. Childhood, 15(3), 379–395. Penn, H. (2011). Travelling policies and global buzzwords: How international non-governmental organizations and charities spread the word about early childhood in the global South. Childhood, 18(1), 94–113. Ralaingita, D. S. (2008). Re-making the Namibian teacher: A study of teacher reflection in an era of social transition and policy reform (unpublished master’s thesis), University of Maryland, College Park. Republic of Namibia. (1990). The constitution of The Republic of Namibia. Retrieved from: http://www.icla.up.ac.za/images/constitutions/namibia_constitution.pdf Republic of Namibia. (2000). National policy options for educationally marginalised children. Department of Culture and Basic Education. Retrieved from: http://www.streetchildrenresources.org/resources/national-policy-options-for-educationallymarginalised-children/ Republic of Namibia. (2001). Education Act. Government Gazette of the Republic of Namibia. Windhoek. Retrieved from: http://www.moe.gov.na/files/downloads/ba0_Education%20Act% 2016%20of%202001.pdf Republic of Namibia. (2002). Education for all national plan of action 2002–2015 [revised version of 2001-2005 action plan]. Retrieved from: http://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/upload/Namibia/ Namibia%20EFA%20NPA.pdf Republic of Namibia. (2003). National policy on HIV and AIDS for the education sector. Retrieved from: http://www.safaids.net/content/national-policy-hiv-and-aids-education-sector-namibia Republic of Namibia. (2004a). Code of conduct for teaching service. Retrieved from: http://www.lac.org.na/laws/2004/3144.pdf Republic of Namibia. (2004b). Namibia vision 2030. Windhoek, Namibia: Office of the President. Retrieved from: http://www.gov.na/vision-2030

99

CHAPTER 3 Republic of Namibia. (2004c). National policy on orphans and vulnerable children. Windhoek, Namibia: Ministry of Women Affairs and Child Welfare. Republic of Namibia. (2006). National professional standards for teachers. Windhoek, Namibia: Ministry of Education, Namibia Qualifications Authority. Republic of Namibia. (2007a). Education and training sector improvement programme: Planning for a learning nation. Windhoek, Namibia: Government of the Republic of Namibia. Republic of Namibia. (2007b). Namibia national plan of action for orphans and vulnerable children. Windhoek, Namibia: Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare. Retrieved from: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/files/NPAforOVC-Vol1.pdf Republic of Namibia. (2008). Education sector policy for orphans and vulnerable children. Windhoek, Namibia: Ministry of Education. Republic of Namibia. (2011a). Free primary education in Namibia: Current context. Windhoek, Namibia: Ministry of Education. Republic of Namibia. (2011b). National census Namibia, population and housing. Windhoek, Namibia: Author. Republic of Namibia. (2012a). Namibia’s fourth national development plan, 2012/13 to 2016/17. Windhoek, Namibia: Office of the President, National Planning Commission. Retrieved from: http://www.gov.na/documents/10181/14226/NDP4_Main_Document.pdf/6a57bd4f-a1ff-4aa5-9bd1264e4a3e1e1a Republic of Namibia. (2012b). Namibian standards for early childhood development centres. Windhoek, Namibia: Ministry of Education. Republic of Namibia. (2012c). Namibia national agenda for children, 2012–2016. Windhoek, Namibia: Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare. Republic of Namibia. (2013). Sector policy on inclusive education. Windhoek, Namibia: Ministry of Education. Republic of Namibia. (2014). Pre-primary teachers’ manual. Okahandja, Namibia: Ministry of Education, National Institute for Educational Development. Republic of Namibia. (2015a, May 29). Government gazette of the Republic of Namibia. Windhoek, Namibia: Republic of Namibia. Republic of Namibia. (2015b). Pre-primary syllabus. Okahandja, Namibia: Ministry of Education, National Institute for Educational Development. Schweinhart, L. J., Montie, J., Xiang, Z., Barnett, S., Belfield, C. R., & Nores, M. (2005). Lifetime effects: The High/Scope Perry Pre-School Study through age 40. Ypsilanti, MI: High/Scope Press. Schweisfurth, M. (2011). Learner-centered education in developing country contexts: From solution to problem? International Journal of Educational Development, 31, 425–432. Schweisfurth, M. (2013). Learner-centered education in international perspective: Whose pedagogy for whose development? London, England: Routledge. Scott, A. (2013). Teaching practice at the University of Namibia: Quo vadis? African Education Review, 10, 149–158. Serpell, R. (2010). The significance of schooling: Life journeys in an African society [electronic edition]. London, England: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from: http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/psychology/educational-psychology/significanceschooling-life-journeys-african-society?format=PB Serpell, R. (2011). Social responsibility as a dimension of intelligence, and as an education goal: Insights from programmatic research in an African society. Child Development Perspectives, 5(2), 126–133. Serpell, R., & Marfo, K. (2015). Some long-standing and emerging research lines in Africa. In R. Serpell & K. Marfo, Child development in Africa: Views from inside. New Directions in Child and Adolescent Development series, no. 146. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Sibuku, C. (1997). Beginning teachers’ perceptions of a learner-centered approach to teaching in Namibia (unpublished master’s thesis). University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

100

NAMIBIA Sikongo, J. (2002). The relationship between the home and the preschool in rural areas in the Kavango (Master’s thesis). University of South Africa. Retrieved from: http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/ handle/10500/1056/dissertation_sikongo_j.pdf?sequence=3 Sriprakash, A. (2012). Pedagogies for development: The politics and practice of child-centered education in India. New York, NY: Springer. Tabulawa, R. (2003). International aid agencies, learner-centred pedagogy and political democratization: A critique. Comparative Education, 39(1), 7–26. United Nations. (1989). United Nations convention on the rights of the child. Geneva, Switzerland: United Nations Human Rights, Office of the High Commissioner. Retrieved from: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CRC.aspx United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). (2011). Selected innovations and lessons learned from UNICEF programme cooperation 2008. Retrieved from: http://www.unicef.org/innovations/files/ LL_2008_ExternalCompendium10Jan2011lowres(4).pdf United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). (2012). The state of the world’s children 2012: Children in an urban world. Retrieved from: http://www.unicef.org/sowc/files/SOWC_2012-Main_Report_ EN_21Dec2011.pdf United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). (2015). Quality teachers for EFA: Capacity development for quality in pre- and lower primary teacher education in Namibia. China Funds in Trust, University of Namibia, & Republic of Namibia Ministry of Education. Retrieved from: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002348/234821e.pdf University of Namibia. (2015). Faculty of Education prospectus 2015. Windhoek, Namibia: Author. Retrieved from: http://www.unam.edu.na/wp-content/uploads/prospects-2015/education-prospectus2015.pdf Wolfaardt, D. (2005). Namibia: A case for a gradual transitional bilingual language program. Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press. World Bank. (2016). Rural population (% of total population). Washington: World Bank. Retrieved from: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.RUR.TOTL.ZS Zeichner K., & Liston, D. P. (2013). Reflective teaching: An introduction. New York, NY: Routledge. Zeichner, K., & Nahstrom, L. (1999). Democratic teacher education reform in Africa: The case of Namibia. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Zeichner, K., & Ndimande, B. (2009). Contradictions and tensions in the place of teachers in educational reform: Reflections on teacher preparation in the USA and Namibia. In J. Furlong, M. Cochran-Smith, & M. Brennan (Eds.), Policy and politics in teacher education: International perspectives (pp. 69–82). New York, NY: Routledge. Zimba, R. F. (1994). The understanding of morality, convention, and personal preference in an African setting: Findings from Zambia. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 25(3), 369–393. Zimba, R. F. (2002). Indigenous conceptions of childhood development and social realities in southern Africa. In H. Keller, Y. H. Poortinga, & A. Schömerich (Eds.), Between culture and biology: Perspectives on ontogenetic development (pp. 89–115). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Zimba, R. F., & Otaala, B. (1993). Child care and development in Uukwaluudhi, northern Namibia. In K. K. Prah (Ed.), Social science research priorities for Namibia (pp. 57–67). Eppindust, South Africa: University of Namibia and Council for the Development of Economic and Social Research in Africa. Zimba, R. F., & Otaala, B. (1995). The family in transition: A study of child-rearing practices and beliefs among the Nama of Karas and Hardap regions of Namibia. Windhoek, Namibia: UNICEF Windhoek & University of Namibia.

101

CHAPTER 4

COLOMBIA A Community Program

INTRODUCTION

Early childhood teacher education (ECTE) and programs for children in Colombia have long been underpinned by a dominant discourse of early childhood that originated in the global north and still circulates globally. More recently, however, national early childhood policy documents have argued in favour of including local indigenous knowledges and practices in community-based programs, producing tensions around how to reconcile these diverse notions of how to teach and care for young children. After this brief introduction to the geographical and historical context for the study, the first of this chapter’s three parts describes the early childhood policy context in Colombia.1 Part 2 then provides an overview of the context of the ECTE program—situated in a rural, agrarian Misak indigenous community in the southwest of the country—followed by a description of the methodology used and the research findings. Part 3 considers the implications of those findings, with a focus on complexities in the interchange between local and global influences and approaches. Colombia is one of the most geographically and ethnically diverse countries in the world. Bordered by Venezuela and Brazil to the east, Ecuador and Peru to the south, and Panama to the west, Colombia is situated alongside the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The Andean mountain range runs through much of the country’s interior, the southwestern region is equatorial rainforest, and tropical lowlands dominate much of the coastline apart from the mountains flanking the coastal city of Santa Marta. At just over a million square kilometres in size, Colombia has a total population of 48,547,904 (Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística, 2016). The country is divided into 32 different administrative departments. Just over three-quarters of the population resides in urban centres, the most populous being Bogotá, Medellin, Cali, Barranquilla, Bucaramanga, and Cartagena (Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística, 2016). Historians LaRosa and Mejia (2012) have described Colombia as “a country of nations, that is, a country composed of communities with profoundly different traditions in terms of their language, customs, practices, and beliefs” (p. 21). Some –––––––––––––– 1 The authors gratefully acknowledge Luz Marina Hoyos Vivas, who reviewed the policy documents and shared her early childhood expertise with us.

103

CHAPTER 4

of these “nations” include Afro-Colombians (descended from slaves brought from Africa beginning in the 16th century), Roma, mestizos (people of mixed race), and indigenous peoples. Prior to the Spanish arrival in 1535 and the subsequent colonization of the territory now known as Colombia, an estimated four million indigenous peoples inhabited the region. The Spanish Crown passed a series of laws in 1542 designed to confine indigenous peoples to specific regions by reserving lands exclusively for their use (called resguardos). Many indigenous communities resisted the widespread independence movements in 1810, fearing further encroachments into their traditional lands if they became independent citizens. Indeed, post-independence, it has been a long struggle for indigenous groups to reassert their rights in the face of expansion into their territories and exploitation of their resources. For over 50 years, the country has been in internal conflict between several leftist guerrilla groups—Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and National Liberation Army being the most prominent—right-wing paramilitary groups, and the military, primarily over issues such as control of land and income inequality. This armed conflict has been largely fuelled by funds generated through the drug trade and kidnappings for ransom. Even though the country is in a period of relative stability, the residual effects of the kidnappings, disappearances, displacements torture, and massacres that occurred during the armed conflict is still felt in many communities. In spite of these upheavals, over the past few decades many indigenous communities have attempted to reclaim their traditional lands. Currently, Colombia is home to 90 distinct indigenous groups speaking 84 languages (United Nations, 2008). Of the total indigenous population of an estimated 1,378,884 people, 933,800 reside on 710 resguardos scattered throughout much of the country (Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística, 2005). Children who belong to an indigenous group constitute 4.6% of the population of Colombian children between the ages of birth and five (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013). The Colombian constitution of 1991 officially acknowledged the country’s many ethnic and cultural groups and embraced the country’s “multiethnic and multicultural condition” (Asamblea Nacional Constituyente, 1991). Moreover, the constitution affirmed that every individual was entitled to “the same rights, liberties and opportunities without any discrimination for gender, race, national or family origin, language, religion, political or philosophical views” (Constitución Política de Colombia, Titulo II, Articulo 13, Asamblea Nacional Constituyente, 1991). Such recognition has served to bolster the claims of indigenous groups advocating for the right to educate their children in a manner consistent with their own worldviews (Misak Autoridad, GEIM, & UNICEF Colombia, 2009a, 2009b). The identification and preservation of indigenous histories, languages, and cultures of communities has been the focus of these efforts, with a more specific concentration on early childhood programs and initiatives. However, the geographical and demographic diversity of the country, coupled with the existing universal, westernized frameworks for early childhood services, present many challenges to communities and organizations.

104

COLOMBIA

Figure 4.1. Map of Colombia. From http://www.istockphoto.com/vector/colombia-political-map-gm50715552745372600?st=ee00e29 (labelled for commercial reuse)

This chapter first establishes the policy context of early learning and child care (ELCC) in Colombia and then turns to the findings in the Colombian site, a community-based program for Misak indigenous educators in the Guambía region in the south of the country. Implications of the findings for ECTE in Colombia are then considered. 105

CHAPTER 4

PART 1 POLICY CONTEXT

As described in Colombia’s Early Childhood Comprehensive Care Strategy (Presidencia de la República, 2013; Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013),2 child care early in the 20th century was primarily the responsibility of families, with hospices and shelters undertaking to care for orphan children. The influence of European theorists such as Froebel led to the development of private kindergartens in the 1930s, but it was not until 1962 that the first government-run kindergartens were piloted on a very small scale. The Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF in Spanish) was created in 1969 to protect children and ensure family well-being through the construction of community-based care centres for children under the age of 7. The first preschool curriculum, jointly developed by the Ministry of Education and ICBF, focused on four types of “work”: community, didactic units, free play, and daily-life activities. In the 1980s, recognition of the importance of the early years led the ICBF to launch an initiative to create day care and family child care programs for 1.5 million “vulnerable” children who were to be cared for by “community mothers” in partnership with the community itself. Such programs focused primarily on child development. Since this time, Colombian ECE policy has adopted many of the dominant discourses circulating globally, particularly the children’s rights discourse. In 1990, Colombia signed the International Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations, 1989), and the country’s revised constitution, passed in 1991, formally acknowledged the convention. Research in the field of developmental psychology, particularly neurodevelopmental research, has also increasingly been used to legitimize the need for both ECE programs and a national policy on early childhood education. There are two types of programs intended for children under 6 in Colombia: preschool education programs and initial education programs. Preschool programs are focused primarily on the child’s development across domains and are intended to facilitate the transition of children into formal schooling (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013). These programs have three levels, the first two of which are optional: prekindergarten, for three-year-olds; kindergarten, for fouryear-olds; and transition, for five-year-olds. In contrast, initial education programs are situated in institutional contexts, family homes, or community spaces, and they challenge the notion that ECE is preparation for formal schooling (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013). Rather, such programs attend to the “comprehensive care” of both children and their families in areas such as development, rights, inclusion, socialization, care practices, and environments (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013). These initial education programs were the focus of our study. In general, early childhood programs have been expanded to such an extent that a recent survey found that 38% of children under 6 were enrolled in some form of ECE program; 8% had been in a program at one –––––––––––––– 2 Both the Spanish and English versions of this document were used in the preparation of this chapter and are cited accordingly.

106

COLOMBIA

time, while 54% had never attended a program (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013). In 2010, the ministries of finance, education, and health and social protection3 partnered with the ICBF to commission a research study on the state of early childhood in the country. Efforts to formulate and implement a coordinated national strategy for early childhood were bolstered by the passage of Law 1450, which was part of the national development plan (2008 to 2014). Key stakeholders from various government ministries—including health and protection, education, and culture—and departments partnered with the ICBF to form a commission, which subsequently contracted with early childhood experts to draft some technical guidelines. These preliminary guidelines were taken to different regions of the country, and consultations were held with local stakeholders to understand the community’s priorities and establish joint working agreements. The process was explained as follows: “Management [is] to reach the territories, to recognize its diversity and contexts, exchanging knowledge to enrich the proposal and to generate consistent, relevant, and empathic answers” (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013, pp. 83–84). The resultant document produced out of these consultations was the Early Childhood Comprehensive Care Strategy (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013). Even though early childhood services were centrally planned, then, there was explicit recognition that the active participation of local citizens in the various regions was essential to elucidate the “multiple and diverse headways, developments, stories, and practices that need to be taken into account in [the strategy’s] implementation” (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013, p. 79). However, the challenges in positioning communities “as legitimate partners with knowledge to contribute” are also given consideration, in particular the necessity to shift existing structures and levels of decision making (Presidencia de la República, 2013, p. 83). The sections that follow will consider how images of the child, indigenous knowledges and the local cultural and linguistic context, early socialization and home-program relations, theories of child development and learning, best practices in early childhood, and early childhood certification and educational preparation are presented in the policy documents. References to school preparation are few because the early childhood comprehensive care strategy represents a departure from the traditional orientation toward formal school entry in early childhood education (Presidencia de la República, 2013). Images of the Child Numerous distinct images of the child have been prevalent in Colombian legislation and policy. Following Dahlberg, Moss, and Pence (2007), such images include that of the child as a miniature adult; as a blank slate or empty vessel to be filled with the dominant knowledge, skills, and values; as innocent or in need of –––––––––––––– 3 The Ministry of Health and Safety has recently changed its name to the Ministry of Health.

107

CHAPTER 4

adult protection; as biologically determined, progressing through specified universal developmental stages; or as a co-constructor of knowledge, culture, and identity, having specific rights and competencies. Bolstered by the signing of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Colombia’s constitution of 1991 shifted the dominant images of the child from “miniature adults” or “incomplete beings waiting for the adults’ actions to develop themselves” (i.e., an empty vessel) to that of citizens holding specific rights (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013, p. 89). In 2006, the Minors’ Code was replaced by the Childhood and Adolescence Code to ensure consistency between legislation and the CRC. The passage of this code similarly reflected a legislative paradigm shift from considering children as “weak and incapable” to acknowledging them as “rights holders” (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013, p. 71). Challenging the established developmental discourse and concomitant image of the child as biologically determined, the early childhood comprehensive care strategy urges early childhood professionals to recognize the “heterogeneity, non-linearity of child development” emerging from the cultural, ethnic, and contextually related diversity of children and families (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013, p. 83). Children are described as being capable from birth and able to configure the pathways of their own development and learning, as seen in the following description: As holders of rights exercising citizenship, children need to be considered valid speakers, able to express and build the meaning of their lives, their existence, with particular ways of relating to peers, adults, families, and development[al] environments. They are capable of making decisions about topics that affect them as well as of expressing their feelings according to the moments of life they are going through. These citizens have the right to grow and develop in participatory environments, guaranteeing optimum conditions to potentiate their capabilities and achieve their well-being. (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013, pp. 90–91) National legislation and policy since the passage of the CRC has conceived of children as “holders of rights, participative citizens, transformers of themselves and of reality, creators of culture and knowledge” (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013, p. 114). However, the geographical, cultural, and socioeconomic diversity within the country has complicated efforts to promulgate these images of the child in practice, in part because of a concern for ensuring equity for all children and in part because of the dominance of western child development theory. In policy, the rights discourse is often correlated with a right to protection from danger or harm as well as a right to care—which includes proper health care, nutrition, vaccinations, and early childhood education—to address the enormous disparities in children’s life circumstances and developmental trajectories (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013). In practice, then, the notion that the child is innocent and in need of protection is necessarily interwoven with the belief that children possess full rights of citizenship. At the local level, the ICBF similarly seems slow to shed previous constructions of the child as biologically determined. In Cauca, where this 108

COLOMBIA

study took place, the regional office disseminated a resource to early childhood professionals that depicts children’s developmental accomplishments at various ages. This resource outlines the procedure for assessing children’s development as follows: Locate the stage of development corresponding with the child’s age, observe the child, and identify the level (1, 2, or 3) the child is currently at (Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar & UNICEF, n.d.). Based on this assessment, a child’s development is deemed to be “expected” (i.e., normal), “advanced,” or “at risk.” These lingering conceptualizations of the child as innocent or as biologically determined implies the difficulties inherent in implementing strategies adhering to the image of the child as a citizen holding rights in early childhood practice in local communities. Indigenous Knowledges and the Local Cultural and Linguistic Context The Colombian policy frameworks reflect the greater tensions that may exist between local and global interpretations of how to care for and teach young children. Both at the regional and national levels, the documents attend to the diversity of contexts within the country by explicitly acknowledging the centrality of localized indigenous knowledges in determining practices in the community. In the early childhood comprehensive care strategy, indigenous knowledges seem to be defined as follows: From the cultural point of view, the ways in which communities live, think, act and feel permits them to talk in reference to diverse relationships with the territory, ethnicity, beliefs, values, customs, languages, and forms of artistic expression (among others). (Presidencia de la República, 2013, p. 103) Therefore, indigenous ways of knowing are inextricably linked to the local context and one’s relationships to the land, traditions, and beliefs within that context. However, this interplay between the local and the global is evidenced in the manner in which the children’s rights discourse is used to strengthen the case for including this diverse range of knowledges. Diversity is defined in relation to children’s inalienable rights, that is, children have the right to access care that is both “universal,” developed at the national level (and strongly influenced by global trends), and “differential,” or locally determined in accordance with the social, cultural, economic, ethnic, linguistic, and geographical realities in the community (Ministerio de Educación Nacional, 2014a; Presidencia de la República, 2013, p. 182). Accordingly, the documents outline some general experiences all children have the right to access, yet cultural knowledges, values, and languages are also to be paramount in the design and implementation of early childhood programs (Ministerio de Educación Nacional, 2014c). Although this implicit dialogue exists between local and global discourses on early childhood, the policy frameworks endeavour to privilege local ways of knowing:

109

CHAPTER 4

Life plans established for each ethnic group constitute the statement of the community organization in which each community recognizes its own history and the political stakes related to land rights justice, education, and health in order to guarantee the survival of its culture. In this sense, it is necessary that pedagogical practice seeks to guarantee the rights of existence and survival of different cultures, without attempting to standardize or impose the Western culture as hegemonic or dominant. In this way, learning is possible as an exchange of customs, practices, values, symbols, norms, and representations of the world that make up the individual and collective identity of the group. (Ministerio de Educación Nacional, 2014c, p. 55) As noted in an ICBF document produced in the provincial office in Cauca, the various ethnic groups “do not necessarily respond to the expectations and standards that the majority society or dominant culture imposes on its subjects” (Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar Regional Cauca, n.d., p. 2). In local indigenous communities, such rights are to be governed by their own systems as long as these are in keeping with rights guaranteed by the constitution (Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar Regional Cauca, n.d.). However, there still exists a dilemma over how to institute a national strategy for early childhood while being responsive to local ways of knowing and conceptions of caring for young children. The nature of this predicament is explained as follows in the early childhood comprehensive care strategy: Recognizing that we are a country with a vast cultural and ethnic diversity poses the challenges of being flexible, being able to see the multiple realities of children, understanding and interpreting them in light of some basic agreements we have built as a society for early childhood care, and providing the answer every Colombian girl or boy needs in a timely manner. This applies to food programs, teaching strategies, care in native or sign languages, traditional knowledge and practices, and guidelines for construction, adaptation, and furnishing of infrastructures for early childhood education. (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013, pp. 227–228) Since the documents do not attempt to delineate the practices and knowledges within different regions or communities (beyond the rights discourse), theoretically there are spaces to construct local interpretations of broader policy objectives. Early Socialization and Home–Program Relations Two dominant ideas are embedded within the policy frameworks: first, that families assume primacy in caring for and socializing their children; and second, that these families may need external support from early childhood professionals to do so. In terms of the first, the family is positioned as the primary agent of socialization, transmitting language and cultural norms and values to the child, as described here:

110

COLOMBIA

The integration of natural, urban, ancestral knowledge, sociocultural, economic and political landscapes is a critical factor in the school-childfamily interaction. Heritage relates to children from the time of their gestation and when they are cared for according to the cultural practices of their environment. The first transfer of heritage occurs during the mother’s preparation for childbirth. The transmission of local knowledge varies according to context and practice. (Presidencia de la República, 2013, p. 163) Families are envisioned as holders of rights and full participants in educational processes. Educators are to elicit each family’s knowledges, experiences, and home practices and collaborate with them to apply these to the educational environment (Ministerio de Educación Nacional, 2014c). In relation to this second interpretation of the familial role, policy strategizes various types of supports that are to be provided to children and the adults who care for them (pregnant women, their partners or spouses, other family members, and caregivers) by educators and other professionals to enhance the home environment (Presidency of Republic of Colombia, 2013). The early childhood comprehensive care strategy proposes two core components to working with families either in their homes or in formalized programs: training, in which the professional educates and “strengthens” families, and accompaniment, in which the professional works collaboratively alongside families in more of a support role. The goals for this work converge on strengthening dynamics within the family so that children are exposed to relationship patterns that are warm, affectionate, caring, equitable (between genders and between parent and child), and participatory. Therefore, although the family is to be the child’s foremost socializing agent, the educator nonetheless may assume an expert role in teaching the family how to enhance their child’s development and home environment as needed (Ministerio de Educación Nacional, 2014c). Theories of Child Development and Learning Although few theories or theorists are specified in the documents, ECE policy in Colombia is derived from a theoretical base that is consistent with western discourses. The early childhood comprehensive care strategy emphasizes that the “main function of early childhood education is to encourage child development” through the provision of meaningful experiences that facilitate exploration (Presidency of Republic of Colombia, 2013, p. 101). Research in the field of neurodevelopment (e.g., McCain & Mustard, 2002) is perceived as foundational to the development of children’s abilities and potential (Presidency of Republic of Colombia, 2013). Evidence-based North American research is employed to justify economic investments in health and education, particularly for vulnerable children. Development is defined as beginning in the gestational period and continuing through the life span (Presidency of Republic of Colombia, 2013). Development is also seen as being a holistic, dynamic, discontinuous, nonlinear process rather than a universal, prescriptive, and sequential progression from one stage to the next 111

CHAPTER 4

(Presidencia de la República, 2013). Consistent with sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 1978), the early childhood comprehensive care strategy conceives of the child as a social being developing through active engagement with others and with the environment within the distinct social, cultural, and historical context in which she or he lives (Presidency of Republic of Colombia, 2013). The educator endeavours to “help children carry out activities that are beyond their capabilities (scaffolding)” (Presidency of Republic of Colombia, 2013, p. 100). Resonant with Super and Harkness’s developmental niche theory, the home is considered to be one “niche” wherein the child grows and “establishes relationships with their environment in different contexts” (Presidencia de la República, 2013, p. 39). Finally, the adult role in supporting the child’s development is also indirectly connected to attachment theory. Forming secure attachments to a present, affective, caring adult allows children “to feel loved, accepted, and valued; to have high selfesteem; to better develop their autonomy and identity” (Presidency of Republic of Colombia, 2013, pp. 110–111). Best Practices in Early Childhood The prioritization of children’s rights and development is strongly evident in the comprehensive strategy document’s best practices for working with young children (Presidencia de la República, 2013). Comprehensive care is to be structured by the following areas: care and upbringing; health, food, and nutrition; recreation; exercise of citizenship and participation; and initial education. Care and upbringing involve strengthening the connections between children and their families by using training and accompaniment to ensure safe, protective, inclusive, and participatory home environments. Health, food, and nutrition are basic rights and determinants of the child’s development, thus preventive and protective measures, treatment of health concerns, and rehabilitation may all be deemed necessary. Citizenship and participation are viewed as a means of promoting children’s formation of personal and collective cultural identities, freely chosen participation in environments, and active decision making with respect to their own lives. Recreation refers to leisure activities that are enjoyable, freely chosen, oriented to the child’s development, allow for creative expression, and are either structured (such as sports or games) or unstructured (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013). The final area structuring the comprehensive care strategy, initial education, is not conceived as preparation for formal schooling, but rather offers children “challenging activities that drive their development” through play and exploration (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013, p. 144). Play, literature, art, and exploration of the environment are the primary curricular areas, to be planned with the goal of helping children “to build and represent their reality” as well as to promote interactions with other children and with adults (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013, p. 97). Consistent with Vygotsky’s (1978) theory, play is conceived of as a “leading activity of childhood,” a social and cultural practice, and a means of exploring roles and developing skills (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013, p. 156). Adults are urged to observe, suggest an 112

COLOMBIA

activity, or play alongside children by assuming a role in keeping with the children’s proposed game. The second curricular focus is literature, which encompasses playing with sounds and words, picture books, songs, lullabies, writing, and stories. Teachers, educators, and family members are positioned as role models “for appropriating the complexities of their native tongue” (p. 147). Although oral traditions are mentioned, books are seen as fundamental, enhancing children’s understandings of emotions, life, sequencing, language, narrative structure, rhyme, and written language. To articulate the importance of reading, the comprehensive care strategy cites a “worrisome correlation” between reading achievement scores and mothers in rural areas with lower levels of education. Third, artistic experiences combine art, literature, music, drama, and dance and are seen to be child initiated and directed, expressive, enjoyable, and connected to children’s cultural experiences. Finally, exploration of the environment and objects using the senses is viewed as a means of learning about objects and phenomena, constructing knowledge, and understanding “rituals or practices of a community” (p. 149). The teacher or educator’s role during play and exploration is to organize and plan the environment and materials, encourage explorations, observe, and ask questions. Interactions between adults and children would seem to adhere to the pedagogical model as the educator is encouraged to verbalize, ask questions, and read stories to enhance literacy development. In contrast to early childhood policy documents in countries such as Canada, Colombian children are proposed to develop and grow in four distinct types of environments: home, health, educational, and public spaces. The home is the most significant of these environments because children spend the majority of their time there. Within the home, adults are to provide affection, be sensitive to the children’s interests and feelings, ensure safety, and resolve conflicts without resorting to violence (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013). The health environment encompasses medical and public health institutions, which are places where children and families can be safely accommodated, listened to, and supported and where diversity is respected and valued (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013, p. 114). Third is the educational environment, which is conceived as a space where children learn to coexist and to be citizens or full participants in the construction of culture and knowledge. Educational environments are often the first places where children “encounter diversity” (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013, p. 114). Educational environments are also concerned with children’s well-being and safety, through attention to health, food, nutrition, care, and protection. Finally, the public space environment is defined as open spaces (such as parks and plazas) as well as structures within the community which are of political, historical, cultural, or sacred significance (libraries, museums, churches, etc.). Such environments aid in children’s development of identity and sense of belonging and serve as instruments of socialization, allowing them to envision how society works and to learn how to interact with a diversity of other people (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013, p. 116). This more expansive view of the environment attends to the vision of comprehensive care for children. 113

CHAPTER 4

Early Childhood Certification and Educational Preparation At the national level, preparation to work in the field of early childhood has been theorized in relation to the country’s diversity. People who work with young children bring “varied experience, knowledge, expertise, and training”—both formal and informal—to their practice that is explicitly recognized in policy (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013, p. 234). Training is viewed as an educational process that creates conditions for different actors working with early childhood to reflect on their practices and knowledge. From this perspective, the plurality of experiences and knowledge of the actors involved in training is an educational resource of enormous wealth for everyone. The diversity of ways of seeing the world and understanding early childhood enriches both understandings and working practices of all those who are related with girls and boys. … Training is characterized by recognition of knowledge and experiences on education and early childhood and care that participants bring to the training process. It is a starting point for the building of new knowledge. Consequently, new knowledge is constructed as a result of the reflection that takes place on the daily actions, dialogue, and experiences of the participants. (Ministerio de Educación Nacional, 2014a, p. 15) Reflected in this statement is the tacit assumption that participants in training programs bring their own practical knowledges formed through their experiences in diverse sociocultural contexts. The training of educators is thus apprehended as a dialogical process whereby the participants access their own prior knowledges and experiences as a basis for co-constructing new understandings of early childhood practice, which, in part, involves acquiring a foundation of technical or theoretical knowledge. Several goals for early childhood training programs are entrenched in policy. First, it is hoped that the participants will attain a comprehensive understanding of childhood and child development (Ministerio de Educación Nacional, 2014a). The second overall goal is to achieve an understanding of how to care for children and their families in accordance with the early childhood comprehensive care strategy. Such care activities are outlined in the “comprehensive care road map” in a checklist format encompassing specific age ranges from conception to age 6 (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013). The third goal relates to diversity, specifically the importance of accessing and using the knowledges of children, families, and communities as a resource, relating one’s strategies to the varied contexts in which children develop and learn, and acknowledging diversity from a rights perspective (locally, nationally, and internationally). Developing the knowledges and skills needed to work with ethnic and cultural diversity is believed to lead to “inclusive practices that facilitate the socialization of children and families within a plurality of values” (Ministerio de Educación Nacional, 2014a, p. 20). Finally, participants are encouraged to generate alternative forms of care that

114

COLOMBIA

are linked to the local context in which such care is given (Ministerio de Educación Nacional, 2014a). PART 2 THE ILLUSTRATIVE CASE: A COMMUNITY PROGRAM

Context for the Program The Colombian research was conducted in the Guambía region of southwestern Colombia, located in the mountains above the historic city of Popayán in the Department of Cauca. The department had a total population of 1,182,022 at the last census, 21.5% of whom identified as indigenous (Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística, 2005). The town of Silvia is the largest municipality in the Guambía region. In this section, we describe the context for the program, the specifics on the research site and program under study, the methodology, and the findings. These findings centre on the tensions between local and national ways of knowing and caring for young children as operationalized in educators’ work with children and families. As reflected in the policies and legislation, there has been government support for the development of early childhood programs that are consonant with local indigenous ways of knowing and being with young children. The program under study in Colombia emerged out of an earlier government-supported project (the Misak Educational Project), a collaboration between the Grupo de Estudios en Educación Indígena y Multicultural (GEIM) at the University of Cauca, UNICEF, and members of local Misak authorities in Guambía in southwestern Colombia (to the east of the research site). The program’s overall objective was articulated as being “to facilitate the growth of Misak children and adolescents in relation to their worldview, the different stages in their life cycles, and cultural practices to allow for their harmonious development” (Misak Autoridad, GEIM, & UNICEF Colombia, 2009a, p. 6). The partners first sought to “recover and collect” ancestral knowledges and significant cultural practices (games, didactic materials, through the recollections of Taitas and Mamas (male and female elders respectively) in the region (Misak Autoridad, GEIM, & UNICEF Colombia, 2009b, p. 130). It was hoped that the partners could both analyze and initiate dialogues around these understandings with the aim of incorporating “new developments in the neurosciences, psychology, pedagogy, and national educational policies” (Misak Autoridad, GEIM, & UNICEF Colombia, 2009a, p. 7). Misak children were to be educated through two different, but interconnected modes emerging from the knowledges of the elders. The first means involved the establishment of an educational centre. To create this centre, extensive field explorations were undertaken by elders and key members of GEIM to identify local sacred sites. Once these were located, the group began to learn how to paint, under the guidance of an art instructor, and created a series of paintings, which were then housed in an educational centre (the 115

CHAPTER 4

casa del taita Payán or casa Payán). The round structure has three storeys, each signifying a different “world” connected by large wooden pillars, with the paintings encircling the room on the interior walls. Taita Manuel clarified that the first floor contains paintings depicting their land and sacred places (territory), the second shows the Misak structure of life or rights and customs (authority), and the third emphasizes spirituality and worldview in a more abstract manner (spirituality).4 Misak children from five local schools regularly visit the casa del taita Payán to learn about these themes.5 The casa is envisioned as the basis of Misak education (Interview, Borgia). The second mode of educating children was to develop an extensive curriculum around a series of themes of cultural and spiritual significance. The focus of the curricular themes in ECE programs is largely consistent with the goal of teaching children the cultural and linguistic values, beliefs, and practices of their community and is respectful of the knowledges they already hold. The Misak Authority, GEIM, and UNICEF Colombia (2009a, 2009b) identified a variety of the broad curricular areas and content or goals, which will be discussed in more depth in the findings section. This curriculum document is a resource for ECTE and ECE programs in Misak communities throughout the region, though planning and implementation attends to contextual variations. Program Description In the next stage of their work together, GEIM collaborated with the Misak Authority to develop a community-based ECTE program for agentes educativos (educators). The prospective students—elders and the younger community members who were to work as their assistants—were identified within various sites in the larger community. Some of the criteria included holding specific cultural knowledge related to the territory, authority, and spirituality; having the ability to speak and write the Misak language; and wearing traditional dress. Held in a centralized location in a small town in Guambía, the program operated for eight hours every Monday for one year. The program was jointly taught by Misak coordinators (the overall coordinator for the project as well as a pedagogical coordinator from the community) and instructors from the University of Cauca, all of whom were members of GEIM and had worked extensively with local indigenous communities. The university instructors taught in their areas of specialization; for instance, a physical education instructor facilitated classes on traditional games and a linguistics instructor who had long researched the Misak language guided sessions on language development. All or a portion of each class was taught in the Misak language. Instructors presented information through oral explanations, often writing key points on a whiteboard. The educators were seated on white plastic chairs in long rows. While it was quite common to observe some –––––––––––––– 4 One only becomes an elder when they have had dreams related to Misak spirituality, and the paintings on the third floor are representative of their dreams. 5 A casa Payan has also been constructed in the research site and a similar process is underway.

116

COLOMBIA

of the female students creating handcrafts as they listened (either embroidering, doing beadwork, or crocheting the traditional mochila, a bag carried by both men and women), fewer students appeared to take notes during class. It should be noted that the program’s goal was not to impart the dominant discourse to educators6, but rather to elucidate indigenous ways of knowing. There was an explicit focus on developing curriculum documents, materials, and practices that were both cultural, derived from the knowledges and experiences of Misak elders in the community, and intercultural, reconciling these cultural funds of knowledge with dominant practices presented in documents such as the Early Childhood Comprehensive Care Strategy. It should be noted that these are the terms used by GEIM and the community. However, the practices and materials seemed to present as hybrids rather than being truly intercultural. Ultimately, it was hoped that educators would feel equipped to teach children and families about their culture and language. Since the Taitas and Mamas are positioned as the holders of the Misak worldview, the educators themselves were instrumental in generating the program curriculum. As in the bridging program in Canada, educators were asked for their input at intervals throughout the classes and shared their ideas and recollections. In this manner, the educators, instructors, and coordinators were able to co-construct understandings of dominant and localized ECE practices. Similar to the bridging program in Canada, the educators were simultaneously studying in the program and working within the various communities in their region. At work, Taitas were partnered with Tias (female assistants) and Mamas worked with Kasukos (male assistants). Working with children is not conceived of as a gendered activity; in fact, Mama Maria Julia informed the researcher that Misak men are deeply involved in the care of their children from infancy (Interview). The pairs worked in several different capacities: visiting the schools to teach cultural content and practices to the children, leading initial education programs for preschool-aged children and their parent(s), and doing outreach and parent education work through home visits. These initial education programs were situated throughout the region—in a dedicated building in the town where the ECTE classes were held, in the largest village in the resguardo, and in family homes in rural areas scattered throughout the region.7 Upon the conclusion of this formalized one-year training period, the nature of the program shifted. The instructors ceased to offer classes and, instead, experienced Taitas and Mamas who had just graduated from the program took on new Tías and Kasukos as assistants in order to mentor them. Thus, the process of “forming” the educators was ongoing. Interestingly, when parents and children were separated for activities, the assistants always worked directly with the children, while the Taitas and Mamas led the parent education sessions. The –––––––––––––– 6 In this section, we use the term educator to refer to the students enrolled in the ECTE program to maintain consistency with the terms used in the community. 7 Such ECE programs have a long tradition in the country. Community mothers (and fathers in the case of this particular community) run programs in family homes and are granted a small amount of compensation for their expenses.

117

CHAPTER 4

reasoning behind this was that the elders were seen to be also engaged in “forming” or training the parents to enhance their capacity to care for their children in culturally and linguistically appropriate ways. The newcomer assistants were further supported during weekly all-day Monday meetings with all of the educators and the pedagogical coordinator. During these meetings, the educators debriefed their work with children and families the previous week. Guided by the yearly plan, they would discuss the content related to that week’s intended theme, and would plan and prepare the activities and materials required for each of the pedagogical encounters for the class. The curriculum documents developed through the Misak Educational Project served as guides for such planning, though the educators were also attentive to the local context in this more lowland region. University professor Borgia explained that ultimately their concern was to build the capacity of every member of the community to educate and care for children. Indeed, this goal was necessary given the structure of governance wherein there is little continuity; the governor of the community changes on a yearly basis and, correspondingly, many community members also move to new positions. As researchers, we were particularly interested in the formation of educators in the context of the workplace, thus our observations during the ECE programs for parents and their children are the primary focus in this chapter. The ECE programs throughout the community adhered to the training model outlined in policy, though the educators did arrange for accompaniment through home visits. As summarized in the yearly plan, there were several foci: the pedagogical teaching around different themes,8 meetings about the educational experiences within each distinct community (a total of five), and health and nutrition. The ECE programs were structured in such a manner as to accommodate two separate groups of children and parents either one morning or one afternoon a week for four hours (Tuesday to Friday). The class was planned as a series of “pedagogical moments” beginning with the arrival, which was conceived to be of cultural and pedagogical significance although the families tended to arrive at varying times over the span of an hour or more depending on how far they had to walk. The Taita or Mama first shared teachings related to the theme with the group and the children either listened in or engaged in a voluntary activity such as making puzzles or drawing. There were several distinct pedagogical activities related to the theme, with a snack (usually a bun and hot chocolate) interposed between them. The first class ended with lunch—usually some kind of a vegetable and meat stew with rice and fresh fruit juice or chicha9—while the second class began with lunch an hour (or more) after the first group departed. Interestingly, there was little continuity in terms of the educators as they rotated to different sites even on the same day. When we observed a program in Mama Maria Julia’s own –––––––––––––– 8 In 2015, for example, the overarching monthly themes were as follows: water, territory, fire, agricultural systems, medicines and spirituality, biodiversity, rocks and minerals, natural environment, air and winds, and Misak language and life cycle. 9 Chicha is a drink made from maize or corn that can be alcoholic, though not in the case of this program.

118

COLOMBIA

home, she was responsible for the morning class, then she travelled with her assistant to a different site in the afternoon while another pair replaced them in her home. Consistent with the pediatric model of child care (LeVine et al., 1994), health and nutrition practices were interwoven throughout each class: snack time, hand washing (after using the toilet and before snack and lunch), tooth brushing (after lunch), and lunchtime were all considered to be distinct pedagogical moments. Instructor Betty explained that such teachings—reinforced in the early childhood comprehensive care strategy—were especially vital in the context of this particular community, for several reasons. First, many of these parents had only a very basic level of education; 50% of the population in the Department of Cauca have only a primary school education, 12.2% have no formal education, and 3.9% have only a preschool education (Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística, 2005).10 In addition, the parents were quite young; in fact, 26.7% of female adolescents in rural areas of the country are mothers (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013). More importantly, many of the families were new to this warm, lowland region, having emigrated from the colder highlands due to a lack of space for housing and farming.11 Due to changes in climate and geography, community members were compelled to navigate a new way of life, such as learning to farm and to prepare unfamiliar agricultural products. The educators, then, were responsive to the need to teach parents about the resources in their new community, as well as to educate them about hygienic practices. Such a focus was not intended to usurp parents of their position as the primary socializing agents, but rather to support them in parenting their children in the new context. As people ate, for instance, the educator discussed the various components of the meal, its preparation, and its nutritional value to educate the parents. Children also learned about the nutritional benefits of various foods. In an unplanned moment where the children picked and ate mangoes, for example, the educator explained to them that mangoes “have vitamins to strengthen the body” (FN). When parents were unable to attend formal programs, the educators visited them in the home to offer support, answer questions, and provide one-on-one teaching. Their work with families also involved supporting and advocating for families in the areas of education (preschool or school), ensuring the health of the child, constructing a healthy home environment, protecting the rights of children and their mothers, and participation of women in the governance of the community (Interview, Betty).

–––––––––––––– 10 Within Misak communities, formal education often holds less weight than indigenous knowledges. For example, the traditional pharmacist in one community is nonliterate, while her young apprentice is a high school graduate. 11 The climate also hindered efforts to promote traditional dress in the community because this heavy, wool clothing was designed for the colder climate of their ancestral territory and in this region, community members found it hot and complained that it offered little protection from the mosquitoes that proliferated during the rainy season.

119

CHAPTER 4

Methodology This ethnographic research was conducted in collaboration with GEIM, which has been engaged in research with this and other local indigenous communities for more than 30 years. Members of the group functioned as the initial gatekeepers who introduced the researchers to the governor and other community members and negotiated consent and other aspects pertaining to the conduct of the study. Furthermore, members of GEIM supported the researchers in learning cultural protocols and working alongside community members in appropriate ways. In the Misak tradition, consent must only be requested of and given by the governor, and once she or he accedes, the rest of the community is deemed to have granted consent. Members of GEIM aided our team in securing individual consent at each meeting of the educators, parents, and/or children by documenting the processes that would take place that day, reviewing the processes, and asking all adults present to sign the form. However, the researcher and assistant were also careful to observe participants’ nonverbal actions to ascertain whether or not they were comfortable with the presence of “outsiders.” For instance, on one occasion, when the researcher was observing in a rural ECE program, although most of the children seemed to warm to our presence, one boy informed us that “tall people” scare him. We left the site shortly thereafter. A local pedagogical coordinator, Taita Diego, also functioned as a gatekeeper, accompanying us in traditional dress when we entered indigenous territories. On one visit, the researcher, research assistant, and several members of GEIM went to an ECE program in a family home unaccompanied by Taita Diego, and it created some conflict with the governor after the fact. In total, six Taita-Tía and four Mama-Kasuko pairs participated in this research in addition to two coordinators, four professionals (nurses or psychologists), the governor of the community, and the children and families enrolled in ECE programs served by these educators. Qualitative data were collected in the form of documents (curricula, handouts, teaching and planning materials, policies, and legislation); field notes taken during visits to community-based ECE programs and meetings of the ECTE students; visual data, such as videos and photos taken in the field; and semistructured interviews and informal discussions with members of GEIM, educators enrolled in the ECTE program, and elders and parents in the larger community under study. Since many of the programs observed were taught in the Misak language, the researchers often utilized informal discussions to elicit translations and to check that our understandings of what occurred during the classes were consistent with theirs. Interviews and discussions were audiotaped and transcribed. The researcher, key members of GEIM, and the research assistant were all situated as participantobservers within the different programs. The researcher visited for a total of 8 weeks over the period of 15 months. Several members of GEIM maintained a consistent presence within the community, visiting throughout the data collection period for work on this and other projects. A local research assistant who was a graduate student at the University of Cauca also made intermittent visits to the various sites over the period of three months. A research associate who has worked 120

COLOMBIA

extensively in the field of early childhood, both nationally and within different communities in the province of Cauca, procured and reviewed the policy documents and made several visits to the research site. After multiple readings of the data, the data were chunked into categories, and a coding framework was developed. The researchers engaged in focused coding of the data and then completed a pattern-level analysis to identify themes. Multiple close readings across the data sources allowed the researchers to identify possible areas of tension between the dominant policies and practices and those enacted by educators in their work with children. Such analysis was challenging in view of the fluid and shifting nature of cultural practice, but the participants and research partners aided in this process. Various areas of dissonance were identified between dominant and local indigenous practices, including images of the child, learning through play, pedagogical approaches, and the use of materials. It should be noted that while national policy affirmed local ways of knowing, in this region the dominant practices and materials were also influenced by global discourses of early childhood. Image of the Child and Early Socialization As mentioned previously, government legislation and early childhood policy has recently been changed with respect to the image of the child. Consistent with this image, the Misak worldview implicitly affirms the construction of the child as competent and having full rights of citizenship. However, the tension between different worldviews is operationalized in the interpretation and expression of that image. As anthropologist Díaz-Barón (2015) has noted, the notion of when childhood begins is understood in distinct, varied ways by each cultural group within the country. In national policy, early childhood comprises the period from birth until the day before the child’s sixth birthday, although there is ample consideration for the health and well-being of expectant mothers (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013). The child is seen to progress through distinct, agedefined stages of development during this period of time and requires specific care activities at each stage (Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar & UNICEF, n.d.; Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013). However, in the Misak worldview, the spiral or caracol (snail) depicted in ancient petroglyphs as well as in more contemporary paintings and carvings is symbolic of the life cycle, which is seen to have no beginning or end (Interview, Taita Ignacio).12 As Taita Avelino Dagua explained, there are distinct phases in the Misak life cycle: preconception, conception, childhood, adulthood, old age, spiritual journey, and the spiritual return (Misak Autoridad, GEIM, & UNICEF Colombia, 2009b).13 However, the individual never ceases to exist, but rather after old age undertakes a spiritual journey, passing from one world or place and returning to another. Each of these phases is related to “all forms of life” and to the three worlds: the territory and –––––––––––––– 12 See also Vasco Uribe, Dagua Hurtado, and Aranda (1993). 13 Before birth, the child is referred to as Numisak.

121

CHAPTER 4

sacred places, the authority, and spirituality (p. 24). Consistent with this view, at the time of birth the Misak child is not conceptualized as one who gradually accrues knowledge through childhood under the guidance of adults. Rather, as Taita Manuel clarified, the child is born in possession of a deep understanding of the “other side” or the place they came from, including the stories, knowledges, and practices of that place (Interview). For this reason, the Misak peoples are perceived to possess “authority” regardless of their age (Interview, Taita Manuel). Even before birth, then, the Misak child is viewed as knowledgeable or “complete,” arriving with an established personality and identity from their place of origin (Misak Autoridad, GEIM, & UNICEF Colombia, 2009b). Since life has no beginning or end, then, the concept of “early childhood” promoted in policy does not exist. As Taita Manuel explained, “there is a program that talks about ‘from zero to six.’ There is no significance to zero because it doesn’t exist. Life is a continuum; it doesn’t have a beginning and doesn’t have an end” (Interview). As further amplified in a book produced by a different Misak community, GEIM, and UNICEF Colombia (2009b), “in this way of understanding socialization, breaks between one stage of life and another do not exist, as in other communities which establish childhood as the decisive stage for the appropriation of the world and for training” (p. 20). After birth, the child assumes the position of any other “recent arrival” who has moved to a new community and therefore must be guided to learn that community’s culturally valued practices, skills, and understandings (Misak Autoridad, GEIM, & UNICEF Colombia, 2009b). Citing the research of anthropologist Peña-Bautista (2010), Díaz-Barón (2015) explained that children “are granted the seed of knowledge that speaks to them ‘from the inside’ throughout life and must learn only to interpret the signs and to hear the knowledge they already have which comes from the Pishimisak (great spirit)” (p. 3, italics in original). In particular, the child learns about the three Misak worlds as they pertain to their new community. For instance, the curricular content related to the territory inscribed in the 2015 pedagogical plan includes significant and sacred sites and soils; the significance of fire and water; agricultural systems, cycles, and practices; biodiversity and relationships with nature; and significant or symbolic rocks and minerals. Socialization in Misak communities is a holistic and collective undertaking whereby members of, and places and objects within, the community contribute to helping children to learn about the community and to establish their identity as a member of it (Misak Autoridad, GEIM, & UNICEF Colombia, 2009b, p. 18). Taita Manuel described this idea as follows: “When the child begins to speak, communicate, they begin to have relationships with these sacred sites. They start to communicate with these sacred sites, and so the sites are the children’s teachers” (Interview). As noted by Veintie (2013), many Latin America indigenous groups adhere to the understanding that natural objects, presumed to be inanimate in the western worldview, are living and active. In accordance with the Misak worldview, spirits, animals, places, and objects in the natural world also assume importance in the socialization of children.

122

COLOMBIA

Consistent with the rights discourse, all members of a Misak community are viewed as equal in status and rights regardless of age or gender;14 therefore, children are full participants in all of the work and daily-life activities of the family and community. Indeed, a community resource urges Misak mothers to “begin to carry their child to places of work for daily activities within two months of birth” for the purposes of observation (Misak Autoridad, GEIM, & UNICEF Colombia, 2009b, p. 35). Furthermore, resonant with the idea that children are equal to adults in terms of their rights and knowledges, becoming an elder in the community is not age dependent because even children can experience the requisite spiritual dreams (Interview, Taita Manuel). These differing interpretations of the life cycle and the image of the child are reflected in the enactment of early childhood practices in the community. Curriculum Content The early childhood comprehensive care strategy emphasizes play, literature, art, and exploration of the environment as the primary curricular areas. However, one of the Misak communities in the region has developed a comprehensive document outlining the primary curricular areas as follows: thought, spirituality, authority, territory, nature, mathematics and production, natural sciences, health and nutrition, and speech and language (Misak Autoridad, GEIM, & UNICEF Colombia, 2009a).15 This document is being used as a resource for early childhood and school programs throughout the region, including the research site, which creates a yearly pedagogical plan focused on one or two distinct themes within these broader curricular areas each week or so. The three most significant areas are spirituality, which encompasses the spiritual world and spirits (e.g., Pishimisak, the spirit of water, mountains, swamps, and lagoons), knowledges and worldview, and the practice of spirituality; authority, which involves leadership, community and democratic participation, equity, coexistence with others (i.e., respect, tolerance, dialogue, acceptance, living together harmoniously), and the Misak culture; and territory, which again includes coexistence with others along with conservation of resources and the land and understanding of the territory (cycles of nature, land, animals, etc.). Each of the curricular areas is multidisciplinary in nature; for instance, thought encompasses one’s relationships with others, norms and values of diversity and coexistence, and Misak culture and worldview. Also, some ideas are threaded through many areas, reflective of the cultural value ascribed to particular concepts. Nature and the natural sciences, for instance, are similar to territory, though with a more explicit focus on agricultural cycles and practices. While the –––––––––––––– 14 For this reason, people only occupy positions of authority for a one-year term. It is thought that assuming power for a short period of time prevents the governor from seeing themselves as “above” the other community members. The new governor may then shift people to new positions, thus there is an extensive staff turnover every January. 15 Martín Sánchez (2014) affirms that the range of diverse conceptions of knowledge and the transmission of knowledge in Colombia makes it necessary to develop “as many curricula as ethnic groups” (p. 168).

123

CHAPTER 4

mathematics and production area makes reference to number concepts, time,16 and space, agricultural products and techniques are also contained in this area, thus conveying the significance of the land. Within this community, many of the themes taught in early childhood programs in 2015 were consistent with this prioritization of territory, authority, and spirituality. The themes underpinning each class included water17, territory (soils, sacred or significant sites), fire (cultural significance), traditional foods, agricultural systems, medicine and spirituality (traditional medicines and plants), biodiversity (the three worlds, relations with nature and spirituality), rocks and minerals (significance and symbolism), stars, air and wind, natural environment, speech and language (mother tongue, language of the animals and the territory, significance of dreams), the design of houses (relations with space and the territory, culture, form and materials), and life cycle. Some traces of dominant influences are evident in the Misak document. The emphasis on participation is tied to the rights discourse as contained in the early childhood comprehensive care strategy, and the health and nutrition content around physical health and development is similarly congruent with the goals in the comprehensive care strategy. The focus in the strategy on exploration of one’s environment is closely related to the centrality of the land and natural environment in the Misak curriculum. However, other areas are interpreted in divergent ways. While the strategy privileges written literature (story books), in the speech and language area, the Misak document promotes both oral and written literacy through listening to and telling stories, following rules and instructions for games, understanding and using symbolic languages (such as texts left on ancient petroglyphs, myths, legends, sacred sites, dreams, beliefs, and traditional dress), as well as reading and understanding narratives. The notion that texts are both concrete and abstract—embodying the values, history, and beliefs of the community—represents a departure from the early childhood comprehensive care strategy, which, for the most part, focuses on pre-reading skills. In addition, while the strategy promotes a rich variety of artistic experiences for young children, the Misak curricular goals acknowledge only music and dance as forms of cultural expression; painting and drawing are dominant practices that have been imported into local communities in this region. Finally, understandings of dominant constructivist views that children should explore with all of their senses are reinterpreted in the local context: The yearly plan identifies the five senses as one’s own thoughts, language, identity, spirituality, and authority. In one lesson, the educator traced his hand on a white board and wrote one of these “senses” on each of the fingers to provide a visual image for the children (FN). The Misak conceptualization of play posed a particular challenge in terms of bringing policy into local practice.

–––––––––––––– 16 Peña-Bautista (2010) and Muelas Hurtado (1995) have written on Misak conceptions of time. 17 Water has deep significance because it is related the Misak story of origin (see Misak Autoridad, GEIM, & UNICEF Colombia, 2009b; Vasco Uribe et al., 1993).

124

COLOMBIA

Learning through Play The primary tension between government policy and cultural practice within this community is evident in the discourses around learning through play. As Fleer (2003) has emphasized, western ECE practice is grounded in the notion that children learn by doing; therefore, teachers organize defined, child-centred environments and materials to allow children to explore and direct their own play. This notion is affirmed in the policy documents where children are conceived as learning through play and exploration. They learn to express themselves and their intentions, negotiate with others, solve problems, and explore and represent their worlds (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013). In accordance with this view, children are segregated from, or have varying degrees of access to, the range of activities within their own communities (Rogoff, 2003). In contrast, play is a concept that is entirely nonexistent in the Misak worldview. Traditionally there is no provision for children’s play, and consonant with other cross-cultural studies (e.g., Ember & Cunnar, 2015; Gaskins, 2014; Lancy, 1996, 2007; Rogoff et al., 1993), parents were not observed playing with their children as play partners.18 Misak children do indeed play, but such play is believed to occur through their work (see also Elkonin, 2005).19 In the context of her research with indigenous (Mayan) children in the Yucatan, Gaskins (2014) found a similar disconnect between play and learning because “much of the learning that goes on in everyday activities is achieved during observation of others and through work, not through play” (p. 13). The children in this Misak community were deeply embedded within the daily work activities of the community, and were implicitly encouraged to learn first by observing adults and then by participating alongside them. In the ECE programs in these communities, there was no reference to play or explicit provision for play in the planning and curriculum documents because the community does not distinguish particular activities as “play” or “work.”20 As noted previously, the curricular goals and content of the Misak document were related to territory, authority, and spirituality, and the master pedagogical plans dictated the themes and materials to be used each week in support of these broader goals. For example, in the weeks devoted to the theme of biodiversity, the corresponding content included the “dimensions of the three worlds, significance and relations with nature, and spirituality,” and the primary pedagogical materials were sacred seeds and local soils of different colours and textures. While there were pedagogical experiences planned for children and their parents, these tended to be either more prescriptive “learning” or school-like activities, such as classifying medicinal plants and gluing the leaves onto poster boards, or “work” activities, such as planting or gardening. –––––––––––––– 18 The only exception observed was when a father attempted to engage his young son in a game of peekaboo (FN). 19 From a sociocultural perspective, there is no division between play and work (Fleer, 2007). 20 Misak epistemology confirms that that knowledge is transdisciplinary and fully integrated, thus activities are not compartmentalized into discrete categories (Misak Autoridad, GEIM, & UNICEF Colombia, 2009a).

125

CHAPTER 4

However, in instances where the educators stood in front of the group to “teach” the day’s lesson, the children were not compelled to sit with their parents and would often initiate “play through work” or “play” activities depending on the pedagogical materials that were made available to them. The assistant educator— Kasuko or Tía—would supervise them as needed. For instance, when the families were learning about traditional Misak dances, the educator spoke at length about the topic and then showed a YouTube video of a traditional dance, inserting narrative during the viewing and inviting the parents to ask questions. During this class, the children (one child was 16 months old, two were 2 years old, and one was 3 years old) were engaged in different ways. While the youngest child sat on his mother’s lap and watched the video or listened to the educator, others engaged in playful activities within the classroom space. Initially, two of the children kicked a large ball back and forth at the back of the room. As other children became restless, their parents nonverbally directed them to the assistant, who brought out cylindrical containers of paint and two child-sized traditional drums and crouched down on the floor with them. He encouraged them to tap on the drums and demonstrated how to stack the paint containers on top of one another to make a tower. The children then participated in building towers, knocking them over, and then rebuilding them (FN).21 So, although play may not have been planned for the children, there were instances when the educators facilitated spontaneous play. More often, the play themes enacted by the children were centred around the daily work tasks in the community. As Elkonin (2005) explains, play “represents an activity that originates in response to the needs of the society in which children live and in which they must become active participants” (p. 3). In the following episode that took place during a program for parents and children in the educator’s own rural home, the children engaged in role play, exploring the use of the fogon (a fire pit used for cooking and as a community meeting place) in the context of their daily lives: The Kasuko, Juan Pablo, and four of the children are crouched in a circle on the back steps to the house, with the children picking up pebbles from a crack in between the steps and carefully placing them on the step, seemingly making a pattern. I ask what they are making, and Pedro smiles up at me and says “a house.” Juan Pedro is crouched down on the ground beside them, and offers some gentle encouragement. Maria Cristina holds two sticks together (looks like a tipi) and hits the tops with a stick as though it is hammer. She runs away and brings back a bow. Pedro says, “This is for the dog, this is for the dog, this is where the dogs eat” as he indicates a small metal pot. Ana has placed a pot on top of a circle of stones. They explain that they have decided to make a fogon (fire pit) instead of a house. … Ana is crouched down on the ground and seems to be watching as Pedro places large stones in a ring –––––––––––––– 21 Interestingly, the teaching approach was quite passive in nature: The families only viewed the video and did not actually try out the dance. The reason for this was that the goal of the lesson was to explain the history and the cultural significance of the dance in relation to the Misak worldview, not the actual movements (FN).

126

COLOMBIA

around the edge of the dog dish. Maria Cristina is holding a stick in her left hand and a rock in her right and uses the rock to hammer the stick into the ground. … Pedro takes the dish. “I’m going to put the rocks here,” he says, as Maria Cristina resumes hammering. Miguel is now beginning to meticulously pick up little stones one by one with his thumb and forefinger and place them inside the dog dish. Juan Pablo hands sticks one by one to Lucia and encourages her to place them under the dish for the fire. “That’s it,” he says repeatedly. Juan Pablo moves away from the pot. … Pedro and Miguel are standing and scraping up rocks from inside a long flower bed. Lucia continues carefully inserting sticks under the pot. Miguel is now taking rocks from the bed and putting them in the pot while Pedro has climbed into the bed in order to look down at the fogon from above. Maria Cristina is also adding stones to the pot. I ask what they are making, and Miguel tells me they are making stew. When the researcher later asked Juan Pablo if he had initiated the activity to infuse cultural content into the class, he explained that the activity “came from their own imaginations.” He emphasized that he had not planned this particular activity and the children decided what to make and do without his direction (Interview, Juan Pablo). The instructor, Betty, further explained that the children were reproducing an activity they had participated in alongside adults in their everyday lives and, in so doing, assumed some of the social roles and familial responsibilities that they will adopt when they are older. Consistent with Vygotsky’s definition of “real” or socio-dramatic play, the children created an imaginary situation where they adopted a specific parental role and followed the “rules” they associated with this role (Bodrova, Germeroth, & Leong, 2008; Elkonin, 2005). In keeping with this role, the children defined the space of the fogon using rocks, used pieces of wood to construct a “fire,” and carried out the basic processes of cooking a stew (placing the pot on the fire and adding ingredients). With the exception of the rocks, which were used symbolically to represent stew, the rocks, pot, and sticks used in their play were realistic, though smaller versions of those used in an actual fogon. At this point, they were imitating a role in their everyday lives, but Fleer (2009) would contend that, as their play assumes more complexity, the children might focus their play on an imaginary situation. When adults’ work activities are made visible to the children in this manner, the children are better equipped to emulate such roles and themes, as Rogoff (1990) affirmed is more often the case in less industrialized communities. Vygotsky (1978) posited that the play situation “creates a zone of proximal development” wherein the child is propelled beyond his or her usual capacities (p. 102). Fleer (2009) refers to Vygotsky’s (1966) famous example of two sisters who pretended to be sisters in their play, illustrating how children might experiment with the concept of a sister and the “rules of what governs sisterhood” (p. 229), which, according to Fleer, supports concept formation. Similar to this case, we can see how pretending to build a fire and cook a stew are indicative of the ways in which these Misak children focused on the concept of food preparation. Citing Rogoff’s (2011) work with Guatemalan indigenous communities, Fleer (2013) asserts that 127

CHAPTER 4

children’s attempts to reconstruct everyday activities through their play often serves as a signal to their families that they are ready to learn a valued practice or form of work in the community. Such play allows children to practice these more specialized tasks as they grow “into the world of adults through play activities” (Elkonin, 2005, p. 59). In the educator’s view, however, this episode was neither play nor learning, but rather an extension of work. It is an example of “pragmatic” play, more commonly seen in nonindustrialized contexts, which helps children develop specific skills needed to contribute to everyday life in their families and community. In contrast, play in highly industrialized western contexts is described as nonpragmatic, child-initiated play that supports their free expression and prepares them for future learning tasks (Bodrova & Leong, 2007). Consistent with dominant conceptualizations of the adult role limned in policy, Juan Pablo sat at the children’s level and urged Lucia to place sticks under the pot, thus scaffolding her understanding of how to construct a fire. As Bodrova (2008) notes, adults can serve an important role in providing children with the “background knowledge to build their scenarios,” therefore aiding them in further developing their role play (p. 366). However, apart from this, Juan Pablo’s role during this activity was quite peripheral and inactive, as he retreated from the immediate area of the fogon partway through the play episode. For the most part he sat quietly, and his body language suggested he was unsure how to “play with” the children (or reluctant to do so), which was not surprising given the positioning of play in the community. Policy does advance global discourses around learning through play, albeit with the proviso that practices should be interpreted in relation to the local context. However, without fully attending to these cultural variations in the approaches to play, or to the adult role in play, the image of the universal child and educator may prevail (Kirova, 2010). Pedagogical Approaches Two distinct pedagogical approaches are used in Misak communities: the first employs oral storytelling and/or visual images to impart cultural teachings, and the second involves guiding children’s participation in the daily activities of the community. Both approaches are dissonant with the dominant role of the educator, as outlined in policy documents, as a facilitator who uses observation as the basis for supporting each child’s development and offers specific experiences and materials that allow the child to explore their world in meaningful ways (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013). Oral and visual approaches are positioned as the central means by which one teaches young children. The paintings in the casa del taita Payán were one means of reinforcing visual pedagogical approaches, as an elder guided the children through the casa and explained the significance of each painting. The fogon is the place where elders impart significant cultural and spiritual teachings in the form of invented or traditional oral stories. Orality is considered by the Misak to be an “intangible” element; that is, it lacks the permanence left behind by a written story, but is imbued with cultural meanings, values, and goals for children. As one elder 128

COLOMBIA

explained, “the children grow physically and spiritually from the advice of their elders” (Video data). While the dominant view in policy prescribed that storytelling (i.e., reading to the children from books) be employed to enhance language and literacy development, from a sociocultural perspective, stories and songs are cultural tools embedded within and reflecting the community’s values and beliefs (Wertsch, 2007). The expert guidance of elders assists children in appropriating the meanings and uses of these cultural tools (Vygotsky, 1978). As seen in the previous section, the provision of specific play activities to teach children was unfamiliar to the educators, who would be more accustomed to giving or receiving teachings through songs and storytelling, often while seated alongside other community members around the fogon. These songs and stories, frequently invented in the moment, are important in relation to their spirituality (Interview, Borgia). Oral and visual pedagogies were not often observed in use in these ECE programs, in part because oral teachings generally occurred in the context of these community gatherings and in part because this community was only in the early stages of creating paintings for the casa Payán. The main exception was the use of traditional dress as a visual mechanism by which the educators conveyed cultural values and fostered a positive sense of cultural identity. Each item of clothing had a particular significance connected to the Misak worldview. For example, the woven straw hat worn by some community members had a distinctive design embodying the spiral that signifies the Misak vision of the life cycle.22 The women wore a heavy handwoven skirt, royal blue cape, and intricate beaded necklaces, while the men wore a brown handwoven poncho, full-length royal blue skirt, and a red and brown scarf. Both men and women carried hand-crocheted bags (mochilas) emblazoned with a culturally significant pattern or image. There was a sustained effort on the part of educators to model traditional dress to encourage retention among the children and parents. Since each piece of clothing is imbued with particular meaning, this initiative served as a visual pedagogical approach.23 In terms of oral approaches, on one occasion, an elder, Mama Maria Julia, was teaching about medicinal plants. She asked the mothers if they could share any songs about plants with the children and, when none volunteered, she began to sing songs in the Misak language, encouraging the mothers to join in, improvise, and invent words. Guided participation (Rogoff, 1990) was the dominant pedagogical approach observed in the program. Guided participation is associated with Vygotsky’s (1978) concept of the zone of proximal development, which refers to the distance between the learner’s current level of competence or development and the level they could potentially achieve with guidance from an expert. In Rogoff’s (1990) conceptualization of –––––––––––––– 22 Some community members also wore black felt bowler hats, remnants of the Spanish colonial occupation. 23 The local kindergarten teacher, Ana, took a much more direct and westernized approach by handing out coupons to the children inscribed with positive descriptors: “excellent” if the child was clothed entirely in their traditional dress and “good” for partial adherence (such as only wearing the top) (FN).

129

CHAPTER 4

guided participation, the adult or expert might employ two interrelated processes: structuring, whereby the expert structures aspects of the learner’s participation in this joint activity, and bridging, whereby the expert draws on the learner’s past experiences to build bridges from past to new understandings and skills. The curriculum, as written and enacted in community programs, was operationalized in a manner consistent with the values and practices within that community. Since the community was in a primarily agrarian region and the land was integral to the Misak worldview, there was a strong emphasis on the cultivation of plants (for producing both food and medicine) in ECE programs, even those for families living in town. During one of the ECE programs, the parents and their children (all between the ages of 1½ and 3) travelled to a nearby farm where the owners had volunteered two defined garden beds for planting. The goals were to show the parents some types of vegetables cultivated in the region that they could feed their children, as well as to teach the children how and when to plant and the benefits of each plant (FN). An excerpt has been drawn from the field notes taken during the effort to turn over and prepare the soil and then plant seeds in order to illustrate the ways in which the children’s participation in the gardening was guided by the adults: The educator explains that they will be growing carrots, peppers, and several medicinal plants. The group works to prepare the soil, pulling out small weeds and turning the soil over. Marcos, a younger toddler, stands apart from the group, stepping over a series of long branches that are leaned against a nearby tree one at a time as he talks softly to himself. As the group begins to hoe the ground, there is little instruction, and the children simply follow what the adults do if they choose. Some children seem to find the hoes heavy and difficult to manoeuvre and another child abandons his hoe in favour of drinking a bottle of milk. … Marcos’s mother is alone at the one bed while everyone else works on the other. Marcos has left the branches and his mother hands him a hoe, which he tries to carry as he toddles precariously along the bed. The hoe is too heavy and his mother takes it, but he seems to want it back (perhaps for balance?). Mama Maria Julia stands poised with her packages of seeds. … A father (Julio) chats with Juan Pablo (the assistant educator) about how they should plant the seeds. Marcos’s mother bends down, holding him in her arms close to her body, and digs a small hole with her finger. She pulls his hand away when he tries to stick it in the hole. She places the seed in the hole while Marcos plays with the dirt. One of the girls, Sofía, brings a toy animal and settles herself next to me on a fallen tree. Two parents are at the smaller bed, planning how to space out the seeds, gesturing with their fingers. The other group is standing by the bed, but not planting yet. A little guy, Antonio, holds a hoe and half-heartedly pulls the soil toward him. Another boy, Santiago, stands between the two beds hoeing one and then the other. … The father gestures to his son, Tomás, to place a seed in the hole he has made. The child sticks his finger in the hole, moves it around, then takes a seed from his father’s hand and drops it in the hole. He picks up a little stick that seems to draw his attention. Santiago is valiantly trying to 130

COLOMBIA

hoe the other bed, straining to pull the soil toward him. The other two children are not involved. Sofía gallops around behind me holding her toy, apart from the group. … Julio and Juan Pablo are planting, observed by Marcos. The educators constructed a learning situation that allowed children and parents to participate in a culturally valued activity and advance their local indigenous practices. In keeping with the idea that the child is embedded in the daily life and work activities of adults, the pedagogical intentionality was almost indiscernible from the overall goal of exposing young children to “work-like” culturally relevant activities. These particular children lived in a town and did not have the same exposure to traditional community work. The rural programs had a similar emphasis on agrarian pursuits, but the activities were planned in less artificial fashion, situated in the community’s garden or on a farm. In their study of four communities in the United States, Guatemala, India, and Turkey, Rogoff et al. (1993) found that the processes of guided participation vary cross-culturally depending on whether the adults assume the primary responsibility for structuring learning or the children themselves manage their own learning and involvement (p. 3). In this vignette, the educators structured the learning situation by defining the spaces for learning (the planting beds), the materials to be used (small wooden hoes), and the tasks to be completed (turning over and replenishing the soil and then planting seeds). These smaller, lighter hoes enabled the children to participate in work beyond their ages and developmental capacities as the regular metal hoes would have been too heavy and unwieldy for them to manipulate. In this community, children generally participate in community labour in accordance with their own rhythms and desires and, for the most part, these adults did not make concerted attempts to actively draw the children into the activity. Adjusting the task or materials is a means of guiding children’s development, as when Marcos’s mother took the hoe from him when he was having difficulty holding it (Rogoff, 1990). Rogoff (2003) has asserted that the learner sustains an active role throughout this process by mutually structuring their participation and negotiating their involvement in these types of ways. When Marcos interfered in the progress of the activity by sticking his finger in the hole intended for the seed, though, his mother seemed to nonverbally encourage him to observe her demonstration or to wait, as his agenda differed from her own. Once the children had the opportunity to observe the process of planting a seed, the one father, Julio, gestured to Tomás to place the seed in the hole, thus simplifying the task while orienting him to the purpose and sequence of the activity. Julio’s effort to orient his son to the activity in this manner aided in the process of bridging between his own understanding of the activity and his son’s (Rogoff et al., 1993). Bridging was also embedded in the structure of the program, with interrelated themes such as traditional foods, the land, plants, and agricultural systems being introduced multiple times throughout the year to provide a mechanism for building on understandings and experiences from previous lessons. When children are given access to the activities of adults in their community, they “may develop largely through their own initiative, through active observation, and gradually increasing 131

CHAPTER 4

participation” (Rogoff et al., 1993, p. 9). The gardening lesson was intentionally constructed and structured to give the children such access by replicating one of the typical work activities in the region. The Role of Pedagogical Tools Dominant western conceptions around the importance of providing play and learning materials specifically designed for children were also dissonant with Misak traditions, because the Misak favour intangible or oral pedagogies rather than tangible materials. In view of their beliefs about the relationship between play and learning, conventional play materials which might be used in early childhood classrooms held no significance to the members of this community, who would instead introduce their children to agricultural tools, household implements, or other materials used for work. The bright-coloured, developmentally appropriate play and learning materials such as puzzles (imprinted with pictures of cars and so forth), games, and toys that the Ministry of Education originally provided to various communities for their ECE programs entrenched “normal” and universal goals for children that were not aligned with the local objective of affirming cultural and linguistic teachings. Yet these were also materials that the children will eventually encounter in schools, and familiarity with their use provided a foundation for school-based learning. With the permission of, and funds from, the Ministry of Education, the educators in the ECTE program addressed these tensions by creating both cultural and intercultural “tangible” materials and games that could be utilized in their work with children and families. Vygotsky (1981, 1986) theorized that tools contribute toward the construction of higher psychological structures by altering the flow and structure of mental functions and mediating human actions and interactions. These materials operated as tools promoting home culture and language and, in the case of the intercultural materials, providing bridging to dominant practices. As cultural and historical products, the ways in which tools were used originated in the values and beliefs of the culture (Cole & Gaidamaschko, 2007), which sometimes appeared to be problematic in the context of this program. In the case of the cultural tools or materials, elders’ own recollections were used as a basis for ensuring some degree of congruence with the Misak worldview. The materials or games the Taitas and Mamas remembered from their own childhoods were reproduced collaboratively by educators and community members and became cultural elements used in ECE programs. These pedagogical materials were always produced using natural resources from the Misak territory (wood, wool, and so forth) because these resources were seen to have deep ancestral significance (Interview, Taita Manuel). Some examples included depictions of sacred animals such as owls and armadillos carved out of wood and musical instruments such as drums or flutes. To teach children about their territory, they created and used small wooden boxes divided into six sections, each filled with a different local soil or seed collected for the purposes of learning about their territory and its agricultural products. The children could discuss the types of soils 132

COLOMBIA

(e.g., in the Misak view, feminine soils are more fertile while masculine soils are more acid and therefore less productive), and the seeds that could be grown in each particular type. The educators also produced hand-sewn cloth dolls and dressed them in miniature versions of the traditional clothing for the children to use during programs. Child-sized versions of other cultural materials were created, but they were still considered to be cultural because they retained both the traditional construction and use. For instance, small renditions of the woven straw hats (tampaikuari), part of the Misak traditional dress, were created as pedagogical materials. In school classrooms, the teachers then worked with students to braid the straw for hats or to crochet the mochila. Girls were introduced to the concept of weaving by being given miniature looms to work with before progressing to the regular-sized looms.24 Child-sized wooden garden tools were light enough for the 3-year-olds to handle, yet still functioned as actual metal tools would. Elkonin (2005) describes how archaeologists working in various nonindustrialized contexts have found similar kinds of scaled-down work tools that seem to have been specifically designed for the purposes of developing children’s skills and training them in completing certain tasks. In essence, such tools situate the task within each child’s zone of proximal development, functioning as a form of scaffolding which allows them to accomplish more than they would be able to with adult-sized tools (Wood, Bruner, & Ross, 1976). Children must achieve mastery of these tools in order to demonstrate their readiness to participate in the work activities of the community. Sometimes, Elkonin argued, children might have introduced elements of role play into the process of learning to use the tools and, as discussed previously, this was certainly the case with the some of the children we observed. Fleer (2013) maintains that there is also value attached to experimenting with such objects because through their play children will develop the skills needed to eventually help their families or make economic contributions to the community. During the early childhood programs, practice with hoeing or digging was provided in defined, supervised garden spaces to aid the children in appropriating the tools. Dominant western early childhood approaches often emphasize the inclusion of play materials in programs that reduce culture to empty signifiers consistent with a “fun, food, and fashion” approach to diversity (Kirova, 2010). In contrast, the materials produced in the context of this program were strongly rooted in the Misak culture and worldview and advanced cultural goals related to children’s participation in the work and cultural activities of the community. The intercultural materials were actually hybrids, merging cultural elements identified by elders with normative pedagogical materials used with children in settings organized according to the dominant conceptualization of early childhood education. Board games and puzzles, for example, are not used by the Misak, yet these materials are highly valued in dominant ECE settings. Since typical puzzles depicted scenes or objects that did not resonate with the children’s own –––––––––––––– 24 We observed children in the community learning to braid straw, crochet, and weave in school at about age 8 or 9.

133

CHAPTER 4

experiences, the educators manufactured puzzles portraying aspects of the Misak spirituality. Introducing Misak children to some of the materials they would eventually encounter in school would, in theory, grant them partial access to what Delpit (1995) referred to as the “culture of power” (p. 25). Pedagogical tools, such as the materials produced in the Misak community program, reify specific culturally constructed notions of how to teach and interact with young children (Grossman, Smagorinsky, & Valencia, 1999). Appropriation of the pedagogical tool is highly dependent on its continuity with the learner’s own values, beliefs, and experiences (Grossman et al., 1999). In the case of this research, observations of various ECE programs confirmed that materials with more familiar, culturally defined uses appeared easier for educators to incorporate into practice than more westernized materials, such as board games and puzzles, adapted in some form to the Misak culture. Over the course of one afternoon class, for example, children and parents learned about traditional plants: they hoed weeds in the community’s garden and then the children identified and categorized different kinds of medicinal plants while adults learned about their properties and uses. Mama Mariana returns to her lesson and hands out small, narrow wooden shovels to each of the children. The children experiment with them as the Kasuko speaks about how they will use them when they go outside to the garden. Several children are banging the ends of the shovels on the floor or pretending to ride them or pushing them like brooms. The shovels are apparently to be used to rid the garden of weeds. We convene outdoors and observe as the children begin hacking away at the weeds alongside the adults. A few of the mothers go hand over hand with them to show them how to use the shovel. Once the materials were introduced, the educators and parents provided some direction to aid the children in learning to use the tools, and then the children chopped away at the weeds quite independently and industriously. When working with westernized materials adapted to the Misak culture in some fashion, the educators were often challenged to gain access to the dominant pedagogical meanings and intentions underlying their use and arrangement in the space. During our observations, for example, the puzzles produced by the educators were not used with any frequency or intentionality; the pieces were scattered on the floor, jumbled together with some interlocking foam puzzle pieces provided by the Ministry of Education. The parents and educators did not engage with the children’s efforts to locate the pieces and assemble the puzzles, and many children would simply abandon the endeavour (FN). The yearly pedagogical plan for 2015 listed the materials to be used to support teaching each theme, and puzzles were included for a diversity of themes related to the Misak territory, spirituality, or culture, but dominant goals such as enhancing physical or cognitive development were notably absent from both planning and implementation. It is difficult for adults to guide children’s participation in an activity when they themselves do not relate to the cultural significance behind these specialized 134

COLOMBIA

materials (Rogoff, 1990). Since the puzzles were developed using western principles, the educators could not assist the children in using the materials for their intended, culturally constructed purposes. Similarly, craft supplies and drawing materials were incorporated into programs with varying degrees of intentionality. These were familiar materials to the educators in the context of schooling, but the notion of engaging in free, exploratory drawing or painting was not typical in Misak communities. In a rural ECE program, two 3-year-old boys, a 2-year-old boy, and a 4-year-old girl were in a sparsely furnished bedroom with the Kasuko, Juan Pablo. The children had pencil crayons and white paper and were kneeling on the floor, using the single bed as a table. While the boys were attempting to draw, the girl asked Juan Pablo to draw pictures for her. Elena says, “Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse,” as he draws a picture. … Elena turns around as if to draw one of the boys’ attention to the paper in front of her and tells him to colour here. … As Elena turns around to see what Juan Pablo is doing, she again says, “Mickey Mouse.” She then asks Juan Pablo to draw a horse, and he does so. He asks her, “What next?” She instructs him to draw a duck; again he draws the picture for her. … Elena begins to sing a little (is she waiting for him to finish so she can colour?). “Put a little one here,” she tells Juan Pablo. “Look,” she says pointing at the picture. The second boy is drawing. Juan Pablo asks Elena to get paper, but a smaller piece than before. She brings several pieces to him and then goes to put one back. He hands her the picture and she stands facing the bed, examining it and naming off the objects he has drawn. She asks him to add some things, and Juan Pablo obliges by drawing them for her. Instead of engaging in free drawing, Elena commands the educator to draw a series of pictures for her, both Disney characters and animals, implying globalized influences on the children in this isolated rural community. The instructor, Betty Vidal, informed the researcher that the educator’s interpretation of this “imported” activity is quite different, because it would not be something the Misak would traditionally do. Accordingly, the educator was not concerned about how children were positioned—such as seated at tables—and how they used the materials because he did not share the dominant goals of enhancing children’s fine motor skills and allowing them to express their creativity. After the children finish, she confirmed, the educator files away the pictures and does not bring them out to show parents or refer to them later on when assessing children’s development. The preceding examples suggest that it is not sufficient to simply introduce educators to various materials used in dominant ECE programs. The conditions and possibilities for using such tools or materials, developed within the context of the larger community, reflect the types of activities that are valued and the worldviews of its members (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989). When learners use the tools, they “build an increasingly rich implicit understanding of the world in which they use the tool and of the tools themselves” (p. 33); that is, they are enculturated into specific ways of understanding the world. The cultural tools were consonant with 135

CHAPTER 4

the educators’ worldview and thus the educators were able to use them to facilitate children’s participation in the activities of the community. However, the intercultural materials were underpinned by a western worldview which embodied approaches to teaching and learning that were dissonant with the educators’ own beliefs and values. Wertsch (2007) has explained that when new tools are introduced into the learning situation, mediated action is transformed, thus tools might either create affordances or introduce limitations for the learner. Since the educators in this community did not share this worldview and had not acquired the “culture of power,” they were unable to enact the dominant, “appropriate” uses for the materials or convey these to the children. If there is an intention to expose children to both indigenous and dominant practices, then ECTE programs must address this tension between worldviews. PART 3 IMPLICATIONS FOR ECTE IN COLOMBIA

In Colombia, the state of ECTE is quite unique because the need to attend to local indigenous ways of knowing and caring for young children is explicitly confirmed in legislation and policy. In fact, the government has endorsed and partially funded this community-based ECTE program, which has the overarching goal of cultural and linguistic revitalization. Such initiatives are vital to the preservation of indigenous ways of knowing. In spite of this support, analyses of the policy documents suggest that early childhood practice is in a state of fluidity and fluctuation, influenced by multiple, competing discourses of early childhood, such as those circulating globally, within the dominant Colombian culture and within this Misak indigenous community. The theoretical shift from a developmental “ages and stages” discourse of early childhood to a more social constructivist one seemed to occur at different rates, thus leading to discontinuities between the approaches advanced by regional offices and those circumscribed in the national policies. For these reasons, even though policy conveys openness to multiple ways of teaching and caring for young children, it is challenging to disentangle these various discourses in order to move toward an understanding of how to reconcile the diverse worldviews underpinning each of them. It was only in the analysis of the educators’ interactions with the children that some of the tensions layered throughout policy and practice became evident. The early childhood comprehensive care strategy may have referenced western theories and approaches, yet it was still deeply contextual in nature, honouring the range of circumstances and environments influencing the lives of children and their families. National policy affirms the positioning of parents as the primary socializing agents, but also posits that families may need support from early childhood professionals. The socioeconomic disparities within the country and this particular community necessitated the implementation of some targeted initiatives consistent with the pediatric model of early socialization, such as hand washing, tooth brushing, hygiene, and nutrition. While the families and children were 136

COLOMBIA

introduced to unfamiliar foods, though, the manner of preparing and serving these foods was consistent with their cultural practices. Such practices, then, were seamlessly brought together as a series of pedagogical moments because the dominant and local practices were not incongruent with each other. The complexities surrounding this interplay between the local and the global were very evident in the goals for early socialization and the corresponding pedagogical approaches. For example, the early childhood comprehensive care strategy accentuated the affective and social-emotional dimensions of care and teaching, consistent with the aim of socializing children for social competence, which Kağitçibaşi (2007) has explained involves aiding children in developing social skills, responsibility for others, and respect. This orientation is in marked contrast to a more westernized conceptualization which, similar to the pedagogical model of early socialization, would promulgate cognitive competence by emphasizing reasoning, language, and problem solving (Kağitçibaşi, 2007). The discussion of best practices and the educator’s role in the early childhood comprehensive care strategy advances this pedagogical model: Educators are urged to play with children, read them story books, ask and answer questions, verbalize, and assume other school-based discourse patterns. Therefore, the strategy is both suggestive of, and attentive to, shifts within the country from a primarily agrarian to a more industrialized society. Indeed, both forms of competence are necessary and, Kağitçibaşi (2007) would say, optimal given the diverse range of cultural values, beliefs, and practices needed for children to become valued members of their own communities. However, the pedagogical model and the emphasis on cognitive competence were wholly dissonant with the traditional pedagogical strategies employed in this community, wherein cultural values and beliefs were imparted to children through oral storytelling and guided participation was used to introduce children to the work and daily-life activities. Terms such as child-centred practice and learning through play, as well as specific “developmentally appropriate” materials (such as puzzles) that are reified in western practice (Fleer, 2003), enhance normalized, universal teaching practices and content. These ideas and materials, produced in Euro-North-American contexts, are disseminated globally as empty signifiers (Hultqvist & Dahlberg, 2001). Detached from the original context of their development, such concepts and tools were altered and reinterpreted by these Misak educators, who did not have access to the underlying meanings, and consequently were unable to scaffold the children’s learning. As emphasized in the planning documents, the purpose of the puzzles was to teach the children about their worldview (which was depicted on the puzzles), not to develop their fine motor or problem-solving skills. Since the community’s focus was on cultural and linguistic revitalization, the educators seemed to believe there was little need to prepare the children for formal schooling using such materials. These so-called intercultural or hybrid materials could potentially exemplify one possibility for integrating diverse perspectives if all parties were to attain access to the underlying worldviews. Materials or tools rooted in the Misak worldview, on the other hand, were introduced into children’s activities in a more culturally consistent manner. 137

CHAPTER 4

The notion of learning through play and the corresponding role of the educator, as operationalized in this program, presented as similarly problematic for these educators. Within the ECE programs, there was no provision for play because it was a concept that did not exist in the Misak worldview, yet the materials were intended to invite play and exploration. Reminiscent of early childhood curriculum in dominant discourses, the content prescribed in early childhood programs in this community was interdisciplinary, connecting many subjects and topics. However, it was also much more contextually bound, converging on local places, practices, values, and beliefs. Such instances where localized practices or materials prevailed are indicative of the educational priorities of this community and the persistence of their ways of knowing in the face of globalization. The examples presented in this chapter emphasize the need to engage in meaningful dialogues around the assumptions implicit in many of the dominant approaches to early childhood. It is important to note that this particular community had control of their early childhood programs. While the government provided funds, practice as enacted in the community was not dictated externally. The university instructors partnered with members of the community to draw out their indigenous knowledges and practices, and then offered support only as desired to bring these into early childhood programs. The individual educators were thus able to exercise agency, making decisions about the curriculum content and pedagogical goals and how these would be operationalized in their practice for the benefit of children and their families. Accordingly, the cultural tensions were not experienced as acutely as they might have been with the imposition of dominant practices. REFERENCES Asamblea Nacional Constituyente. (1991). Constitución política de Colombia 1991. Retrieved from: http://www.procuraduria.gov.co/guiamp/media/file/Macroproceso%20Disciplinario/Constitucion_P olitica_de_Colombia.htm Bodrova, E. (2008). Make-believe play versus academic skills: A Vygotskian approach to today’s dilemma of early childhood education. European Early Childhood Education Journal, 16(3), 357– 369. Bodrova, E., & Leong, D. J. (2007). Tools of the mind: The Vygotskian approach to early childhood education. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Bodrova, E., Germeroth, C., & Leong, D. J. (2008). Play and self-regulation: Lessons from Vygotsky. American Journal of Play, 6(1), 111–123. Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated learning and the culture of cognition. Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32–42. Cole, M., & Gaidamaschko, N. (2007). Vygotsky and culture. In H. Daniels, M. Cole, & J. V. Wertsch (Eds.), The Cambridge companion to Vygotsky (pp. 193–211). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Dahlberg, G., Moss, P., & Pence, A. (2007). Beyond quality in early childhood education and care: Languages of evaluation (2nd ed.). London, England: Falmer. Delpit, L. (1995). Other people's children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York, NY: The New Press. Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística. (2005). Boletín censo general 2005: Cauca. Retrieved from: http://www.dane.gov.co/index.php/poblacion-y-demografia/censos

138

COLOMBIA Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística. (2016). Demografía y población. Retrieved from: http://www.dane.gov.co/index.php/estadisticas-por-tema/demografia-y-poblacion Díaz-Barón, M. (2015). An approach to the upsurge of children, childhood, and education in Colombian anthropology. AnthropoChildren, 5, 1–11. Retrieved from: http://popups.ulg.ac.be/20348517/index.php?id=2366 Elkonin, D. B. (2005). Chapter two: On the historical origin of role play. Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, 43(1), 49–89. Ember, C. R., & Cunnar, C. M. (2015). Children's play and work: The relevance of cross-cultural ethnographic research for archaeologists. Childhood in the Past, 8(2), 87–103. doi: 10.1179/1758571615Z.00000000031 Fleer, M. (2003). Early childhood education as an evolving ‘community of practice’ or as lived ‘social reproduction’: Researching the ‘taken-for-granted.’ European Early Childhood Education Journal, 4(1), 64–79. Fleer, M. (2009). “Conceptual play”: Foregrounding imagination and cognition during concept formation in early years education. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood Education, 12(3), 224– 240. Fleer, M. (2013). Making room for diverse cultural expressions of play in the retheorization of play activities. In O. L. Lillemyr, S. Dockett, & B. Perry (Eds.), Varied perspectives on play and learning: Theory and research on early years education. Charlotte, NC: Information Age. Gaskins, S. (2014). Yucatec Mayan children’s play. In J. E. Johnson, D. Kuschner, J. L. Rooparine, & M. M. Patte (Eds.), International perspectives on children's play (pp. 11–22). Maidenhead, England: McGill Hill. Grossman, P. L., Smagorinsky, P., & Valencia, S. (1999, November). Appropriating tools for teaching English: A theoretical framework for research on learning to teach. American Journal of Education, 108, 1–29. Hultqvist, K., & Dahlberg, G. (2001). Introduction. In K. Hultqvist & G. Dahlberg (Eds.), Governing the child in the new millennium (pp. 1–14). New York, NY: RoutledgeFalmer. Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar, & UNICEF. (n.d.). La escala cualitativa del desarrollo infantil: Nacimiento – seis años. Bogotá, Colombia: Author. Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar Regional Cauca. (n.d.). El ABC del código de la infancia y la adolescenia en el ámbito de los grupos étnicos. Popayán, Colombia: Author. Kâgitçibasi, Ç. (2007). Family, self, and human development across cultures: Theory and applications (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Kirova, A. (2010). Children’s representations of cultural scripts in play: Facilitating transition from home to preschool in an intercultural early learning program for refugee children. Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education: An International Journal, 4(2), 1–18. La Rosa, M. J., & Mejia, G. (2012). Colombia: A concise contemporary history. Plymouth, England: Rowman & Littlefield. Lancy, D. F. (1996). Playing on the mother-ground: Cultural routines for children’s development. New York, NY: Guildford. Lancy, D. F. (2007). Accounting for variability in mother–child play. American Anthropologist, 109, 273–84. LeVine, R. A., Dixon, S., LeVine, S., Richman, A., Leiderman, P. H., Keefer, C. H., & Brazelton, T. B. (1994). Child care and culture: Lessons from Africa. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Martín Sánchez, M. A. (2014). Education and health: A case of indigenous cultural identity in Colombia. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 132, 166–170. McCain, M. L., & Mustard, J. F. (2002). The early years study: Three years later. Toronto, ON: The Founder’s Network of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. Retrieved from: http://www.peelearlyyears.com/pdf/Research/Early%20Years/The%20Early%20Years%20 Study.pdf

139

CHAPTER 4 Ministerio de Educación Nacional. (2014a). Cualificación del talento humano que trabaja con primera infancia. Documento No 19. Serie de orientaciones pedagógicas para la educación inicial en el marco de la atención integral. Bogotá: Editorial Panamericana. Ministerio de Educación Nacional. (2014b). Modalidades y condiciones de calidad para la educación inicial. Guía No 50. Serie de orientaciones pedagógicas para la educación inicial en el marco de la atención integral. Bogotá, Colombia: Editorial Panamericana. Ministerio de Educación Nacional. (2014c). Sentido de la Educación Inicial. Documento No 20. Serie de orientaciones pedagógicas para la educación inicial en el marco de la atención integral. Bogotá, Colombia: Editorial Panamericana. Misak Autoridad, GEIM, & UNICEF Colombia. (2009a). Orientaciones educativas y lenguajes expresivos de la cultura Misak para el fortalecimiento de la educación preescolar: Unidades de aprendizaje. Popayán, Colombia: Universidad del Cauca. Misak Autoridad, GEIM, & UNICEF Colombia. (2009b). Resignificación de la estructura del sistema colectivo de educación para la vida Misak. Popayán, Colombia: Universidad del Cauca. Muelas Hurtado, B. (1995). Relacion espacio-tiempo en el pensamiento Guambiano. Proyeccionnes Linguísticas, 1(1), 31–40. Peña-Bautista, A. J. (2010). En las voces del Pishimisak: Apuntes etnográficos sobre el tiempo Misak (The voices of Pishimisak: Ethnographic notes on Misak time). Retrieved from: http://www.revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/maguare/article/view/15054 Presidencia de la República. (2013). Estrategia de atención a la primera infancia. Fundamentos técnicos, políticos y de gestión. Bogotá, Colombia: Imprenta Nacional. Presidency of the Republic of Colombia. (2013). Political, technical and management fundamentals: Early childhood comprehensive care strategy. Bogotá, Colombia: Imprenta Nacional. Rogoff, B. (1990). Apprenticeship in thinking: Cognitive development in social context. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Rogoff, B., Mistry, J., Göncü, A., Mosier, C., Chavajay, P., & Heath, S. B. (1993). Guided participation in cultural activity by toddlers and caregivers. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 58(8), 1–179. United Nations. (1989). United Nations convention on the rights of the child. Geneva, Switzerland: United Nations Human Rights, Office of the High Commissioner. Retrieved from: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CRC.aspx United Nations. (2008). Struggle for survival: Colombia’s indigenous people face threat of extinction. Retrieved from: http://www.un.org/en/events/tenstories/08/colombia.shtml Vasco Uribe, L. G., Dagua Hurtado, A., & Aranda, M. (1993 ). En el segundo día, la gente grande (Numisak) sembró la autoridad y las planta y, con su jugo, bebió el sentido. In F. Correa (Ed.), En Crucijadas de Colombia Amerindia. Bogotá, Colombia: Instituto Colombiano de Antropología. Veintie, T. (2013). Practical learning and epistemological border crossings: Drawing on indigenous knowledge in terms of educational practices. Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education: Studies of Migration, Integration, Equity, and Cultural Survival, 7(4), 243–258. doi: 10.1080/ 15595692.2013.827115 Vygotsky L. S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Vygotsky, L. S. (1981). The instrumental method in psychology. In J. V. Wertsch (Ed.), The concept of activity in Soviet psychology (pp. 134–143). New York, NY: Sharpe. Vygotsky, L. S. (1986). Thought and language. (A. Kozulin, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Wertsch, J. V. (2007). Mediation. In H. Daniels, M. Cole, & J. V. Wertsch (Eds.), The Cambridge companion to Vygotsky (pp. 178–193). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Wood, D., Bruner, J., & Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17(2), 89–100.

140

CHAPTER 5

INTERSECTIONS

INTRODUCTION

In each of our research settings, tensions between global ideas and local understandings of childhood and education were clearly seen to impact early childhood teacher education (ECTE). In some instances, the space for diverse worldviews was quite limited. In Namibia, for example, views are contradictory: policy documents value diversity, but a teacher-centred approach persists in classrooms. In Canada, Colombia, Namibia, and around the world, early childhood education institutions and ideas are in tension between the demands of global neoliberalism and education, on the one hand, and meeting community needs on the other. Bronfenbrenner (1979b) described children’s development as occurring in nested ecological systems—in the family, in the preschool, in relation to policy, and in a context of cultural and societal ideas of childhood and education. In turn, the ecological space of preschool is influenced by the systems in which it is nested. This chapter considers the alignment of ECTE and the policies guiding it, with the ideal, or the social imagination of preschool, shown in the three case studies in relation to depictions of the child, ideas about classroom and pedagogy, and relationships with parents. In the preceding chapters we described navigating between spaces as a struggle for many preservice teachers/educators. But as Grinberg (2015) writes, what matters is not the opposition between policy and practice, but precisely how “these lines of schooling move, struggle, and mingle with the lines of … educational policies, urban life, the neighborhood, etc.” (pp. 92–93), and, we would add, with teacher education classrooms. In Chapter 1, preschool was explained as an idealized form of care and socialization where the objective is determined by societal ideas about children’s needs (Chaiklin, 2014). The ECTE programs we researched were planned, at least in part, to support such needs. However, other factors were evidently at play: the bridging program was established in relation to labour force policy aimed at reducing the social costs of immigration; the university degree program, with its stated focus on learner-centred methods, was linked to the legacy of postindependence rhetoric of social reform (Arreman, Erixon, & Rehn, 2015); the community program was rooted in a broader project for cultural revitalization, which is itself a response to globalization (Stillerman, 2010). Moreover, countries with diverse populations are unlikely to come to easy agreement on either the makeup of children’s needs or the qualities of the ideal preschool.

141

CHAPTER 5

Children’s needs were articulated in policy in different ways across the three countries and within policies in each country. These differences stemmed from the way the needs were identified and assessed: predominantly by experts in Canada and Namibia and in consultation with regional offices of various early childhood service agencies in Colombia. This explanation follows Bradshaw’s (1972) typology of social needs as normative, felt, expressed, or comparative. Normative needs are determined on the basis of expert judgment, that is, as interpreted by professionals. Felt needs are what individuals believe their needs to be, while expressed needs are what people demand, with needs interpreted through some participatory process. Comparative needs are interpreted in relation to services others receive in similar circumstances (Dean, 2010). “Real” needs emerge from some combination of the types. As described in Chapter 4, Misak children’s needs were determined through a participatory cultural revitalization project involving elders and community leaders, with guidance from university experts. This process was interlayered with state-level policy: the early childhood comprehensive care strategy, also developed through a participatory process. In Canada and Namibia, policy development in relation to children’s needs followed a more traditional model, with interpretation of normative needs by experts. However, development of the various curriculum frameworks in Canada involved consultation with select stakeholders, suggesting a consideration of expressed needs. In Alberta, for example, the process involved professional, academic, governmental, and pedagogical partners (Makovichuk, Hewes, Lirette, & Thomas, 2014). The first post-independence ECD policy in Namibia in 1996 involved NGOs and government actors (Namibia Resource Consultants, 2001); however, it is not clear if or how communities and parents were consulted in developing the 1996 or subsequent policies. Penn (2008) has written about how the World Bank’s recommendations for education development in Namibia, drawn up by international consultants, were ultimately “inoperable” (p. 393). Nevertheless, they helped shape the government’s 2005 ECD policy. MODELS OF THE CHILD

A model of the “ideal” child supports a society’s priorities, articulated as aims of child-rearing and in policies designed to guide, protect, or otherwise regulate children and families. Ideals were described by anthropologists LeVine et al. (1994) as cultural models of child-rearing: the pediatric and pedagogical approaches; by historian Stearns (2011) as “agricultural” versus “modern” models of childhood; and by educationists Cleverley and Phillips (1986) as “visions” of childhood. The aim of child-rearing in the agricultural model is to “bend children to a sense of duty” (Stearns, 2011, p. 72), a similar goal as in LeVine et al.’s (1994) respect/obedience model of child-rearing for children of preschool age. For Stearns, the historical move to the modern model meant “the conversion of childhood from work to schooling” (p. 54), a situation brought about by decreased birth rate, increased rates of child survival, and greater regulation of child life by government. The change was not straightforward. Myers (1992), for example, 142

INTERSECTIONS

spotlighted the situation of children in the majority world, calling for a modified model of child development for the many “at risk” children who live in “dual worlds” of competing cultures and values (p. 19). LeVine and his colleagues, considering culture, discussed the way the models coexist even when they are in conflict with one another. The modern or pediatric model of the schooled child is prevalent in policy, and the agricultural or respect/obedience model continues as an approach to child-rearing with particular relevance to the Namibian and Colombian sites in our research. This does not suggest that the models coexist on an equal basis: Where education is used as a tool of colonization, the colonizers’ vision prevails in schools. Stearns (2011) notes that the modern view of the child has been subjected to pressures and “impossible hopes” for childhood, along with “restrictions and constraints” (p. 82). These can be seen in terms of at least six different historical visions identified by Cleverley and Phillips (1986), which also inform contemporary educational interventions. In the environmentalist view, experience through sensation or reflection leads to growth of knowledge, an idea often associated with John Locke and captured in the metaphor of the child’s mind as a blank slate. The modern model of the child relies heavily on this idea: that all children are “capable of improvement through careful education” (Stearns, 2011, p. 67); that is to say, all children can be changed or resocialized through schooling. The free and constrained view is made up of two rival notions. One is that child nature includes hereditary sin. The first aim of education and child-rearing in this case is to restrain a child’s self-will. This notion contrasts with Rousseau’s (1964) apparently free treatment of Emile based on understandings of child development. The tension between freedom and restraint is clear in the advice of Emile’s tutor: “Let [your pupil] always believe himself to be master, and always be master yourself. There is no subjection so complete as that which preserves the appearance of liberty; it is by this means that even the will is led captive” (p. 107). The child and the species view reflects culture-epoch theory in which human history as well as individual children develop “in ever more complex and sophisticated periods” (Johanningmeier, 2009). The theory is associated with the ideas of J. F. Herbart and G. Stanley Hall, and is also reflected in Friedrich Froebel’s philosophy of the kindergarten. In this view, the agricultural model of the child is situated in an earlier evolutionary phase of human history, but one that children also experience in their individual development. In terms of education, culture-epoch theory served as a way to organize curriculum. Thus, children playing with beads in kindergarten represented their encounter with a past cultural and historical period in the present. The loss of innocence view is based on constructs from psychodynamic theory proposed by Freud and his followers. In this view, childhood innocence is revealed as “a myth based on adult wishful thinking” (Cleverley & Phillips, 1986, p. 60). Psychodynamic theorists contended that some behaviour occurs for reasons that we cannot ourselves comprehend. They highlighted the importance of family in development. The stage-based developmental approach to the growth of the normal child is termed the ages and stages view (“ages of man” in Cleverley and Phillips). 143

CHAPTER 5

Stages are understood to be invariant in order, with each qualitatively different from the others. They are identified using scientific method, and are largely considered universal. Examples include Jean Piaget’s cognitive stages and Erik Erikson’s social-emotional stages. The ages and stages view informs the NAEYC’s developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) framework. It is this developmental approach that became prevalent in the last half of the 20th century, and it is still dominating the early childhood policy documents and ECTE curricula in the three sites we examined in our study. In the upbringing fit for society view, child-rearing is based on what is needed for preparing children to be citizens. Preparation is partly achieved through habit training in doing a job well. The model places a large role on school as a major learning environment. The school resembles a family, and the student engages with the content of schooling in cooperative activities, including useful occupations such as cooking and woodworking. The model is associated with the ideas of John Dewey. Finally, in the conditioned child view, child-rearing is based on behavioural principles of learning. The environment determines behaviour in ways that can be predicted and controlled, as expressed in the ideas of John Watson and B. F. Skinner. Cleverley and Phillips’s visions reflect western notions of childhood, draw mainly on ideas from psychology, and describe applications for learning in school contexts. Our review of policy documents and curriculum content in the three research sites included in this study shows clearly that these notions are found in the reviewed documents. Except for the curriculum documents for the community program in Colombia (see Chapter 4), they contrast with cultural models of childhood used by parents as interpretive frameworks for child socialization that are based on cultural beliefs or ethnotheories (Super & Harkness, 1986). The agricultural/pediatric models and the western “visions” fail to capture the fullness of indigenous understandings of the child, as reflected in the Misak worldview. As discussed in Chapter 4, Misak peoples view newborn children as possessing deep knowledge of “the other side,” and thus at birth they are already “complete.” The learning a Misak child needs to do is related to the immediate environment in which the child is born, and cultivating the environment through agricultural activities is required. Acknowledging and building on this view of children’s learning needs is found in the curriculum areas developed by the Misak Authority in collaboration with GEIM and UNICEF Colombia (2009a, 2009b). Learning agricultural techniques, including classification of natural resources and the use of appropriate technologies, agricultural calendar, ancestral practices, living plants, and traditional knowledge of the land, are all part of the indigenous revitalization program we observed in Colombia. Although the learning needs of the children in rural Namibia that constitute the majority of school-age children in the country (see Chapter 3) may be similar to those of the children in the Misak community, the policy documents dating from the 1990s that we reviewed are firmly grounded in the notions of childhood based on western developmental theories and those inherent in the United Nations 144

INTERSECTIONS

Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). Akahara (2013) too points out that principles guiding early childhood curriculum in African countries are mainly drawn from those identified in Europe and America due to colonial influence. Compared with these, the beliefs of Chewa people in Zambia, for example, as described by Serpell (1996), reveal notions of child development in terms of “organic growth” and “cultivation” and in relation to “pre-existing patterns” (pp. 131–132), that appear similar to the ages and stages vision. However, for the Chewa, the child develops in relationship with networks of kin, as a “plant growing up in a field—the kin group” (Nsamenang, 1992, cited in Serpell, p. 132). The Chewa model contrasts with other western visions, including Locke’s environmentalist view, which is at the heart of the modern model of the child. These indigenous models of childhood are clearly in tension with the modern model. And whereas Froebel promulgated the idea of a natural child, it is an idea out of step with indigenous notions of child nature (Brison, 2011; Jackson, 1998; Lall, 2011; Nsamenang, 2010; Pacini-Ketchabaw & Taylor, 2015). An attempt to address this tension in Africa was made in a 2013 indigenous early childhood care and education (ECCE) curriculum framework developed by prominent African scholars Awopegba, Oduolowu, and Nsamenang in collaboration with UNESCO, in which they point to the fact that without preserving indigenous values and other aspects of cultural background, African children would soon lose their cultural identity, a right enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, indigenous ECCE frameworks should not lose sight of globalizing trends in the Convention that enshrines the non-denial of any child’s right to her or his own cultural identity. (p. 37) The stated expectation is that the content and methodologies used to deliver early childhood programs leaves room for the voices of all involved in the education process, including teachers, children, parents, and communities. MODELS OF PRESCHOOL AND PRESCHOOL TEACHING

The battle over the “best” approach to compensatory early education in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s reveals the discord among social scientists over an “ideal type.” Writing in the early 1970s, David Weikart (1972), a developer of the HighScope approach to ECE, commented, “The field of compensatory preschool education is littered with debris from the battles … between the ideas of traditional child-developmental educators and the more modern approaches espoused by educational researchers” (p. 22). In current times, the field seems to be going in two directions at once. On one side, there is a worldwide trend toward academic preschools with a government or “staff-initiated curriculum with cognitive aims for school preparation” (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2012, pp. 84–85). On the other, some in the early childhood profession believe the battle has been won in favour of play-based approaches to learning, and a number of governments, mainly 145

CHAPTER 5

in the west, have established early childhood curricula or frameworks for curriculum reflecting this view (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2012). However, these curricula are designed to achieve widely different state-level purposes: to improve the efficiency of the sector to promote academic readiness, as in Turkey; to reinforce a society’s Christian and humanist traditions, as in Norway, or democratic values, as in Sweden (Alvestad & Pramling Samuelsson, 1999; Ødegaard, 2013); or to take advantage of globalization, as in Namibia (Republic of Namibia, 2004b). A specific approach to teaching is rarely specified in the various curricula. In Australia, where there is a national curriculum framework, researchers identified 16 different approaches used in preschools, ranging from behaviourist to postmodern (Arthur et al., 2005, cited in Kilderry, 2007). All of the approaches met the framework’s general principles for early childhood pedagogy.1 Indeed, such diversity—drawing on many theoretical perspectives—is encouraged by the framework (Australian Government Department of Education, 2009). While approaches to teaching are rarely specified in official curriculum documents, it can be assumed that teaching is meant to be learner centred and play based. In regard to play-based approaches to learning, particular western values and biases have shaped how play is viewed in educational practice (Cannella, 1997). Cannella (1997) contends that relying on information from particular contexts to guide practice “denies the multiple value structures, knowledges, and views of the world which are created by people in diverse contexts” (p. 127). Furthermore, there is also a risk of imposing practices that are not applicable into contexts where they do not fit, as was the case in our Namibian research site. Thirty years ago teacher educator Millie Almy (1976) observed that a feature of ECE programs was their uniformity: programs had the same “look” around the globe. Almy also noted their ideological diversity—societal ideas about children’s needs differed at the same time programs were structured and delivered in similar ways. Using a single approach to teach necessarily ignores divergent ideas of child socialization along with their cultural underpinnings (Cleghorn & Prochner, 2010). And, as Grieshaber and Ryan (2006) explain, “marginalization, dispossession and disempowerment are the very things with which ‘one size fits all’ approaches are unable to deal” (p. 534). Where does this leave us in a deliberation on the fit between a society’s “imagined preschool” and ECTE? Because the dominant view of preschool is aimed at social conservatism, we argue that it is necessary to consider local cultural ideas about children’s needs. Yet “culturally adapted models” of ECE (Modica, Ajmera, & Dunning, 2010) are insufficient, adding “ethnic content” without making fundamental changes to the curriculum or structure of the program (Banks & Banks, 2007). At first, the preschools in Burton’s (2012) study of early education in the Solomon Islands appeared to her as a “localized counter-movement,” a clear break with the –––––––––––––– 1 The principles include secure, respectful, and reciprocal relationships and partnerships, high expectations and equity, respect for diversity, and ongoing learning for reflective practice (Australian Government Department of Education, 2009).

146

INTERSECTIONS

dominant western approach to preschool (p. 158). She observed both “cultural reinvigoration” and “codification” of indigenous teachings in the community at large and in preschools. However, preschool practice tended to objectify deep culture. As well, the teachers blended indigenous approaches to teaching and learning, using observation and modelling, with a western approach rooted in the tradition of missionary education with its focus on rote learning and memorization (cf. May, Kaur, & Prochner, 2014). As an added layer, this practice conflicted with the official curriculum, which emphasized learning through play, as did the teacher training. Burton (2012) concluded that the preschools that proved to be sustainable had community support for the preschool idea, rather than greater resources or even more highly trained teachers. In sustainable programs, children and teachers had a sense of belonging and shared purpose. EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHER EDUCATION

In the last couple of decades, efforts have been made worldwide toward professionalizing the ECE workforce by drawing on a rigorous expert knowledge base in the field. In the minority (western) world, neoliberal discourses circulating both locally and globally have resulted in a plethora of policies and regulations designed to ensure program quality (Woodrow, 2008). These standards have led to an increased focus in global and national policy agendas on ensuring children’s well-being in the critical early years as a way of contributing to a nation’s economic competitiveness (Moss, 2006). In the majority world, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) has provided the language that now frames national frameworks for education. Whether explicitly stated or not, globalization is seen as a way to put individual countries on the economic map. Namibia, for example, in its Vision 2030, specifically states that the country “should embrace globalization … [and] manage and harness aggressively the opportunities that it offers for optimizing Namibia’s comparative and competitive advantages” (Republic of Namibia, 2004b, p. 33). As part of this vision, the investment in ECD is seen as having potential for very high returns (Republic of Namibia, 2012a). Instructional Tools Early childhood teacher preparation institutions and programs play a specific and very significant role in the process of achieving higher education outcomes through professionalization of the workforce by way of setting learning objectives to be met, curriculum content to be covered, learning materials to be made available, and modes by which the content is to be delivered. In spite of the growing body of critical literature that challenges the status of developmental psychology as “normal science” (Kuhn, 1962/1996), knowledge of child development theories and DAP (Bredekamp & Copple, 2009) are still seen as central to teacher preparation (Lobman & Ryan, 2007). Framed by western child development 147

CHAPTER 5

theories, the dominant ECE discourse is reflected in the ECTE curriculum that promotes the notion of a universal, decontextualized childhood and thus privileges western normative values and practices. Students who come from different cultural backgrounds are expected to accept the western child development theories on the authority of instructor and text. They are led to believe that such authoritative knowledge will transform them into professionals. Since the curriculum for children and the curriculum to prepare adults to teach children are typically quite similar in many ECTE programs, material objects or tools have allowed the instructor to convey central ideas in early childhood education. Following European philosophical thought since the beginning of the 17th century, when European philosophers such as Campanella argued that learning must take place through the senses (Slide, 1992), material objects specifically designed to meet the educational needs of young children were developed and used worldwide (e.g., by Froebel and Montessori). However, it was Comenius’s textbook Orbis Sensualium Pictus that endorsed and spread throughout Europe the idea of pictorial representation. The book was published in English in 1659, and the first quadrilingual edition (in Latin, German, Italian, and French) was published in 1666. In 1685 it was published in a quadrilingual Czech, Latin, German, and Hungarian edition by the Breuer publishing house in Levoča. Between 1670 and 1780, new editions were published in various languages, with changes in pictures and text. Since that time, visual illustrations as a form of visual instruction became an integral part of teaching both children and adults to work with them. The book, which had an immediate and long-lasting impact on education systems in Europe, is “generally considered one of the first aids to visual instruction” (Masson, 2012, p. 38). Visual learning also fit nascent notions of child development in which the main pathway to learning was via observation. In the words of the 19th-century early childhood teacher educator Samuel Wilderspin, a “child receives a great deal of knowledge from the eye” (Report from the Select Committee on Education in England and Wales, 1835, p. 16), and the eye required training. Increasingly, therefore, tactile and olfactory exploration of concrete material objects was obsolesced by visual instruction, made even more readily available through technology. Visual illustrations are now an integral part of ECE texts and other instructional materials. Even in the cultural revitalization community program in Colombia, where painting and drawing are not traditional activities, visual methods were introduced to teach Misak children (and adults) about their culture. The boundaries of the communities have shifted and members have been displaced into other regions, losing some of the connections with their territory, culture, and worldview through sustained contact with the dominant culture. While children are perceived to learn through communication with sacred sites, many of these sites are too far away to visit in person, thus paintings are employed as a pedagogical tool, or, as described by Taita Manuel, as “encyclopedias to the Misak world” (Interview). As noted in Chapter 4, a series of paintings was created by the elders in one community in collaboration with GEIM and UNICEF Colombia to line the walls of a three-story casa del taita Payán, or educational house, to introduce children to the Misak worlds of territory, authority, and spirituality 148

INTERSECTIONS

through visual images. For instance, the paintings on the territory floor portray the Misak story of origin2 and various sacred sites in the region, while the authority level illustrates elements such as the arrival of the child in the community (childbirth), elders giving advice to the new mother around the fogon (fire pit), the yearly process of choosing a governor, images of the Authority in this region and beyond, the equal rights of men and women, a marriage ceremony representing the joining of families, purification rituals, an individual’s spiritual journey, and images of animals and spirits who teach children about their rights.3 In the research site, the casa Payán comprises three distinct round one-storey buildings, each encompassing one of the three worlds, and the paintings are currently being produced. The design of this casa Payán is intended to present as a visual text employed for teaching children. As Taita Manuel explained, the casa was intentionally planned to be harmonious with the Misak worldview. Mirroring the spiral that symbolically depicts the Misak life cycle as having no beginning or end, the houses are round, and one enters through one door, walks around the inside perimeter, and exits out the other door. Accordingly, there is a defined logic or order to the presentation of visual images, albeit one which is only discernible in the context of the Misak culture. The cement pathways, or “nerves,” connecting the three worlds also reflect the double spiral inscribed in ancient petroglyphs. Taita Manuel confirmed that the windows, placed at varying levels, are planned as a sun dial, allowing the sun to shine onto the floor in the very centre of the house, thus revealing the time (Interview). A resource book with photos of the images has been produced for teachers and educators to complement the teachings imparted by the casa Payán. In this community, then, a diverse range of visual texts are instrumental as pedagogical tools in early childhood and school programs. Authority is ascribed to the dominant written and visual texts used in ECE and ECTE programs, which may in turn promote universal, normative interpretations of practice (Souto-Manning, Cahmann-Taylor, Dice, & Wooten, 2008). However, since the values, beliefs, and concepts underlying these paintings emerged from the knowledges of Misak elders and were steeped in their worldview, the images were highly responsive to their localized interpretations of that which young children should learn and experience. Media and digital tools, including PowerPoint, audio clips, photographs, and film, are now commonly used to support learning in teacher education. As is the case with many activities in teacher education, students are taught both with and about technology; the aim of the latter is to encourage students to develop strategies to use with their own students in the future (Niess & Gillow-Wiles, 2015). Indeed, in many cases governments require teacher education programs to include technological pedagogical content knowledge. Since technology itself is seen as neutral, its use in imparting the dominant discourse of ECTE is rarely –––––––––––––– 2 Male and female bodies of water came together to produce children who are referred to as “sons of water” or “daughters of water” (Misak Autoridad, GEIM, & UNICEF Colombia, 2009a, 2009b). 3 Certain elements of the Misak spirituality and territory are sacred understandings which are not to be widely shared, and we have adhered to these norms in our descriptions.

149

CHAPTER 5

viewed as a way of conveying the (western/scientific) knowledge and skills preservice early childhood educators are expected to acquire. However, technologies “embody a form of thinking that orients a person to approach the world in a particular way” (Apple, 1991, p. 75), that is to say, in accordance with western epistemological traditions. Therefore, the medium or tool of instruction (e.g., film, PowerPoint, online resources) advances an authoritative linear, western, rule-governed form of logic, which in turn “affects our habits of mind” (Turkle, 2004, p. 102). In nonwestern contexts, such as the teacher education program in Namibia, or in western contexts in which students are from nonwestern cultural backgrounds, such as the program in Canada, tensions could arise in relation to both the content, based on western conceptualizations of the child (developing child, the whole child, child as individual and citizen in its own right), and the mode of content delivery (technologies, media, and artifacts). To examine the effects of technologies or tools, we draw from McLuhan and McLuhan’s (1988) proposed set of laws “intended to provide a ready means of identifying the properties of and actions exerted upon ourselves by our technologies and media and artefacts” (p. 98). These principles are presented as four questions that could be asked about any artifact, technology, or medium: What does the medium enhance or make possible? What does it obsolesce or displace? What does it retrieve that may have been previously obsolesced? What does it reverse into or produce when pushed to an extreme? These questions or processes are visually represented in the form of a tetrad comprised of two figures and two grounds in proportion. The figure—concept, content, or idea—reflects a western orientation to the world, while the ground— culture or context—resonates with a nonwestern view (McLuhan & McLuhan, 1988). PowerPoint PowerPoint as a medium of instruction was used in two of the research sites: Canada and Namibia. As a form of organizing and communicating information, PowerPoint presumes that all students, regardless of their cultural backgrounds, are adept at interpreting information presented in a linear, written, and summarized or outline form. Since many cognitive processes associated with higher mental functioning are not universal but culture bound and shared by individuals who have undergone similar socialization experiences (Nisbett, Peng, Choi, & Norenzayan, 2001; Rogoff, 1990), foregrounding the virtual instead of the actual (Adams, 2006) may disadvantage learners from nonwestern cultural backgrounds. The organization of PowerPoint is consistent with a rule-governed formal logic that is characteristic of individuals schooled in the western tradition (i.e., Euro-NorthAmerican) and belonging to low-context cultures (Hall, 2013). In low-context cultures, meaning is conveyed in an explicit, linear manner that “marches through point a, point b, and point c, establishes links from point to point, and finally states an explicit conclusion” (Bennett, 2013, n.p., italics in original). In contrast, highcontext cultures (Hall, 2013), from which the students in the programs in both Canada and Namibia came, adhere to holistic rather than analytic approaches 150

INTERSECTIONS

oriented toward the context or field as a whole, rather than to parts of the whole, such as discrete objects or points (Nisbett et al., 2001). Hence a linear organization of ideas may create a dissonance that is deeply rooted in the culturally valued technical and symbolic tools that were part of students’ own socialization processes and through which their higher mental functions developed (Nisbett et al., 2001; St. Clair & Jia, 2005). More specifically, as described briefly in Chapter 2, the students in Communications 1, one of the courses in the bridging program in Canada, were expected to use and interpret graphs, tables, and other unfamiliar graphic organizing tools with a form and content that were alien to them. Students were asked to make sense of visual icons that were (western) culture specific, sometimes metaphoric, and with abstract textual features. As illustrated in Figures 5.1 and 5.2, these were often embedded within PowerPoint slides used in the bridging program.

What is your mental static?

you

Figure 5.1. What is your mental static?

While the class discussion that followed the presentation of the PowerPoint slides shown in Figures 5.1 and 5.2 had a conversational quality that was less structured and linear than the information on the slides, the linearity of bullets, or balloons in the first slide, imposed a fixed structure on ideas. Moreover, the students were asked to engage in linear, sequential, and classificatory explorations and analyses of the phenomenon of “mental static” through the use of written words that aimed at establishing organization and continuity of thought (Ong, 2012). The students, who were wholly unaccustomed to using such organizational devices, found the task meaningless (e.g., they laughed when asked to complete the task).

151

CHAPTER 5

How can I clear the static ? •

Take a few deep breaths to calm

•

Do a quick body scan & note areas of tension – stretch

•

Picture a “static meter” & rate where you are at the moment

very focused

•

Have a comfortable place to sit when you interact with children

•

Write down your “To Dos” so you can focus on the here and now

distracted

Figure 5.2. How can I clear the static? (Dombro et al., 2011, p. 22)

PowerPoint, by its very nature, forces the user to break up information into discrete chunks of text in order to fit it on a slide, and instructors often succumb to the entreaty to “click to add text” that appears on many of the default slide templates (Adams, 2006). The processes involved in creating a PowerPoint presentation also include evaluating materials and making pedagogical decisions about what information is most important and must be included. Moreover, PowerPoint “risks squeezing out the provider of process—that is to say, the rhetorician, the storyteller, the poet, the person whose thoughts cannot be arranged in the shape of a PPT slide” (Nass, n.d., cited in Parker, 2001, p. 6). This procedure operates to separate the means from the end, in which the process of constructing the PowerPoint presentation—the instructor’s “knowledge-in-action”—is obscured from student view and they see only the final product (Adams, 2006, p. 401). Eventually this reductive process becomes a habit of the mind, reshaping the instructor’s own thought processes. The inherent structure of PowerPoint, as enacted in the classroom in the bridging program in Canada, foregrounds monologue at the expense of dialogue. Gee (2008) emphasized the impossibility of engaging in dialogue with written text “because of its illusory quality of seeming to be explicit, clear, complete, closed, and self-sufficient, i.e., ‘unanswerable’” (p. 51). The PowerPoint presentations ultimately pointed to the authoritative discourse of ECE—developmentally appropriate practices and western normative developmental theories—as mediated and interpreted by the instructor and textbook authors. An authoritative discourse, according to Bakhtin (1981), is infused with historically derived power and authority and inscribed with the tradition of theory and practice of the field, as well as of the specific institution or program. The PowerPoint format reduced complex concepts to words that the students in the bridging program copied verbatim, and the students later struggled to find their

152

INTERSECTIONS

own words to represent their knowledges when developing their own PowerPoint presentations. In the context of the program we studied, the use of PowerPoint demonstrated that “direct instruction in concepts is impossible. It is pedagogically fruitless. The teacher who attempts to use this approach achieves nothing but mindless learning of words, an empty verbalism” (Vygotsky, 1987, p. 170). Following Vygotsky, Edwards (2014) suggested that there must be continuity between the ECTE students’ own common-sense knowledge (spontaneous concepts) and the more theoretical and abstract knowledge (scientific concepts) of the program. Only then can they become part of hierarchical thinking in the contextual richness of everyday thought (Vygotsky, 1987). If used as a main teaching tool, PowerPoint risks reversing meaningful learning that could lead to understanding. Film Film has a long history as an educational tool. By bringing the “the outside world to the classroom” (Masson, 2012, p. 39), educational films are considered substitutes for practical experience or are used as a precursor to direct experience. The main advantage of film over other photographic media is its ability to capture movement, which is considered by some as a “closer approximation of reality and therefore, a better teaching tool” (Masson, p. 39). As a medium of instruction, film is thus considered a means of enhancing student learning by providing in-class opportunities that are not available even in the immediate out-of-class context. The notion of a documentary film as representing an aspect of reality (McLane, 2012) is used as a rationale for its use in educational contexts. Although it is acknowledged that images (e.g., photographic images) “have a power that words often lack” (Weidel, 1995, p. 76), they are also described as “similar to a written account in that they are incomplete and tell a partial story” (Fasoli, 2003, p. 36). We would like to extend this statement by including film as a “perspective-laden narrative” (Hess, 2007, p. 194) and to challenge film’s ability to present the real truth about the world. We also challenge the early notion that the visual perception of something is equal to knowledge of it (Masson, 2012, p. 39). In terms of using films as an instructional aid, there have been arguments in support of the importance of interaction with people that bring about insights into the content that film viewing alone cannot achieve (e.g., Jackson, 1968), as well as arguments pointing to the potential loss of the instructor’s authority and control over the classroom during film viewing (Masson, 2012, p. 63). Unlike most conventional classroom teaching aids, films allow the least amount of control over the content, sequence, or pace of events presented. It is in this sense that the concept of dispositif that Masson (2012) introduces is important, because it acknowledges that film viewing is constrained by both the nature of the medium itself (length, sequence of events, narration, etc.) and the institutional factors (size of the room, orientation of seating in relation to the screen, light, time frame allotted to classes, etc.) that provide the general context that influences the viewers’ reading/understanding of the film. In Masson’s conceptualization, “pedagogical dispositif” also acknowledges that the instructor’s “role in 153

CHAPTER 5

determining the conditions in which the viewing takes place” (p. 120) is central, and that it includes the particular (hierarchical) nature of instructor-student relations in which the instructor is in a position of authority. Thomas Balmés’s 2010 documentary on child development, Babies, is an example of a documentary film that was not intended for educational purposes but has been used in various programs, including preparing medical students and teachers (Blessing, 2011; Felippa, Delgado, Sabelli, & de Zambonini, 2015). In our study, the film, which followed the development of four children from birth to one year in Namibia, Mongolia, Japan, and the United States, was shown to participants in two of the research settings, Canada and Namibia. In Canada, the bridging program instructor used the film as part of a lesson on developmental milestones as a valuable substitute for child observation in contexts inaccessible by the students and the instructors (Blessing, 2011). Students were prompted to pay attention to cultural assumptions in the four contexts and to the role of environment in influencing development. In Namibia, the researcher arranged a viewing for teacher educators in the bachelor of education program; however, the film was used not as an instructional tool but rather as a prop in facilitating a discussion about indigenous cultural practices. What makes the use of Babies unique in the two research contexts is that the very nature of the film’s content equalized the power relations in the contexts in which it was shown. More specifically, in the Canadian site, instructors were more familiar with the ways that children in North America, including the United States, are cared for, while many of the students in the bridging program came from African and Asian countries and had first-hand experience with cultural practices similar to some shown in the film and could judge their authenticity. Since one of the settings portrayed in the film was a very remote rural community in Namibia, the instructors from Namibia had intimate “insider” knowledge and experience with their own highly varied cultural practices, while they had less knowledge of the other three countries included in the film. This being said, they expressed discomfort with the idea that the Namibian scenes might be generalized to the whole country, and similarly thought that the United States portrayal may have been “too stereotypical.” Although the use of this particular film changed the power dynamics in the classroom in the Canadian site, the instructors maintained their position of authority by virtue of selecting the film as part of their instructional strategy. In Masson’s (2012) words, “the approval which is thus given to what is said or shown—even if tacitly—is a crucial constituent of the dispositif within which the film under scrutiny acquired [its] meanings” (p. 121). The notion of critical viewing in the sense of privileging certain angles over others or even ignoring certain aspects or points of view is central to pedagogical dispositif. In the Canadian site, the film Babies was embedded in the lesson plan in year one of the program. The viewing was preceded by the following activities: 1. Students were asked to refer to the charts of developmental milestones they had created last day and answer the following questions: – What is a “developmental milestone” (e.g., walking, talking, starting school)?

154

INTERSECTIONS

– Were there differences between the competencies [you and your colleagues] described for the various age groups and the ones identified on the milestones sheets? – Is there a range of difference from one child to another at the same age? – What are the problems with developmental milestones? (i.e., What if a child doesn’t “fit”—when do you worry and what do you do?) 2. Students were also asked the following questions relating to cultural perspectives on development: – What are some of the significant milestones in your home culture (e.g., first birthday, first communion)? – Was there anything that surprised you about the parenting practices in the film? Before watching Babies, the students were instructed to pay attention to the following: – Differences and similarities in development across cultures. – How the environment influences development. These instructions represent an attempt to see the film as a text in which language, symbols, and imagery are attended to and analyzed. The activities prior to viewing the film framed the act of the viewing within western child development theory (i.e., developmental milestone charts). The developmental charts were planned to serve as a reference point even when similarities and differences across the cases were found. Maudlin, Sandlin, and Thaller (2012) argue that Babies contrasts “civilized” and “uncivilized” child care, which is distinguished by a consumer-based “baby culture” defined by consumption. The observation field notes from the class when the film was shown captured the reaction of the students in the class consistent with judgments of care as civilized/uncivilized. The scene showing two African women side by side nursing, sharing food, and eating while checking baby’s bottom and using a corn cob to clean the baby, or the scene in which an African mother was shown cleaning her baby by licking produced vastly different responses in the students depending on their country of origin. While nonAfrican students were laughing or showing strong emotions by saying “oooohhhhh, my goodness,” the African ECTE students looked down, almost embarrassed by what was shown on the film. Similarly, during the scene showing shaving of the Namibian child’s head with a knife, most students looked uncomfortable, including a few of the African students (who were also mothers), who looked away and not at the screen. A follow-up on the Babies video occurred the next week. In the instructor’s lesson plan, the following questions were to frame the reflective conversation about the film’s content: – How would you describe each child’s growing up experience? – How would you describe a typical child’s growing up experience in your home country? – How would you describe a typical growing up experience in this country? – What things were similar and different about their development? (discuss nature versus nurture)

155

CHAPTER 5

As Plantiga (1997, p. 18, cited in Masson, 2012, p. 129) explains, “nonfiction films are those that assert that the states of affairs they present occur(ed) in the actual world”—something they can do with varying degree of convincingness. Therefore, the possibility of the audience not accepting “truth” as represented in a film exists. This possibility has much to do with the interpretation of the meaning as text. As one of the African students identified, the film was not convincing to her as a true representation of life in Africa: The only thing that I saw in the video is that the mom never went to look for food. For the baby, the African girl. I never saw, she was cooking, but as a mom, you have to look for something, even though the baby grow up, mom was always sitting … feeding the babies two of them at once, never see the mom, have any worries, food for the baby. … I look to feed for the babies. (Sofia, El Salvador) The interpretations of what the film actually showed, as the observation field notes indicated, were vastly different depending on the experiences and cultural frames the students used to critically evaluate what the film presented to them. However, we argue that the overarching frame provided by the developmentally appropriate practices based on the early childhood professionals’ ability to identify developmental milestones and provide activities to support children’s development was the reason behind the reactions of all students, whether they were laughing or being embarrassed by what was showing on the screen. So, we now ask, did the film meet the instructional purpose? According to the course instructors, the movie Babies provoked much useful discussion. Students and instructors approached these discussions in a nonjudgmental manner and were fascinated by the myriad of practices that were uncovered. Students seemed confident that their child-rearing knowledge and practices were honoured and felt free to ask questions about Canadian child-rearing practices. They also felt strongly that it was important that child care educators be familiar with different cultural practices in order to best support the children and families in their centres. (cited in Massing & Shortreed, 2014, p. 42) Some of the cultural practices students discussed included the use of mother’s milk for medicinal purposes, practices regarding the umbilical cord, naming the child, and the practice of swaddling newborn babies common in Asian and African cultures. The comments demonstrated a shared assumption that children who live in more difficult/natural environments will be hardier. The role of immunization, proper nutrition, exercise, vitamin supplements versus what “nature provides” (e.g., African child walking barefoot, balancing items on his head, getting vitamin D from the sun rather than from a pill, etc.) was a topic of lengthy discussion that led to the conclusion that “these African ones will be the strongest [of all four children in the film].” Cultural differences regarding safety, such as leaving children around animals, leaving them alone or with siblings, as well as different gender-specific expectations (see Chapter 2 for more details) and specific roles that mothers and 156

INTERSECTIONS

fathers play in children’s lives, were discussed and even debated. The role of older children as caregivers and “more capable peers,” to use Vygotsky’s (1978, p. 78) term, was highlighted in the conversation as the key difference between the American and the African child. Learning by trial and error is common, as one student commented, but in African cultures siblings are the ones responsible for showing youngsters what is “proper” if they go too far in their exploration and go to forbidden territories: Sometimes babies are trying to put things in the mouth, let them learn. … Maybe he will touch everything and will learn what is hard, what is soft, like sand. … He pick up (from) his brothers, we saw that he show him that maybe he is not allowed to touch those places, these private places. (Laila from Morocco) The role of siblings in the Namibian family shown in the film was contrasted with the role siblings played in the Mongolian family: What I see in this video, the boy, the Mongolian little boy, he has a brother, they never talk … they never talk. … What I see is that they are out and together most of the time. The little boy is like this … the relationship, he is always like stopping him, hitting him … the thing he is communicating was so different, I see that … the kids are learning from siblings. (Tersit, from Ethiopia) In either case, the fact that siblings were looking after the babies was seen as an example of the type of (unnecessary) “pressure” the students in the program perceived North American parents and, by extension, the ECE professionals to put on young children. The two models of socialization are contrasted: What I see like, to us, we put too much pressure on children while they are [capable of] babysitting themselves. The little boy was looking after him, not the mom, most of the time, the mom she’s busy looking for food. (Teresa, El Salvador) Consistent with Rorrer and Furr’s (2009) study of using film to increase multicultural awareness in Caucasian teacher education students, our study found that the students most valued “sharing the cultures, the discussions within the class, and sharing personal experience” (Anonymous course evaluation). Having higher cultural awareness, however, does not necessarily mean developing a deep understanding or appreciation of other cultures. In Rorrer and Furr’s study, for example, students reported that after a critical viewing of the films, their sense of belonging to cultural groups was increased. In our study, too, the reactions of the students in the bridging program in Canada during the viewing of the film Babies and their discussions regarding the cultural practices included in it show that the film made them aware of their own cultural practices and encouraged them to compare them with the practices shown in the film. What the film accomplished as an instructional device was to make visible and therefore public some aspects of these practices that some of the students in the class were not comfortable with. 157

CHAPTER 5

Unexpectedly, the Namibian child-rearing practices evoked very similar reactions in the viewers in the Namibian site, as indicated by participants lowering their heads and diverting their eyes from the screen during scenes of childbirth, breastfeeding, cleaning baby’s face with mother’s milk, etc. This public display of some private aspects of one’s culture made some students uncomfortable, at least in part, we believe, because of western conceptualizations of child-rearing practices that have gained a normative value as a result of the course content taught in the ECTE program and the expectations of the workplaces where the women in the program worked. Professional ECE practices had no room for most of the cultural practices, and even though the discussion about these practices allowed for beliefs to be shared, the dominant discourse in ECE could not possibly incorporate them. Thus, the cultural knowledge and practices that were shown in the film “othered” them in relation to the dominant ECE discourse. Language At the onset of the study we asked, “What indigenous knowledges or perspectives are brought to ECTE, how might these perspectives be integrated meaningfully in ECTE programs, and to what extent are these evident in teacher educators’ practices?” In exploring these questions we became aware that the ECTE programs we studied reflected, to various degrees, state-based purposes. Moreover, with the exception of the Colombian program designed specifically to maintain the Misak culture and revitalize the Misak language, the ECTE programs also reflected two disparate trends in the ECE field: an emphasis on more structured academic preschools programs (in Namibia) or an emphasis on play-based approaches to learning (Canada and Colombia). A closer examination of each case revealed that regardless of the local variations of these trends, they represented a much larger global movement in which western-generated theories about child development were at the core of the teacher-training curriculum. Paired with these theories was the recommended use of particular approaches to teaching children, including using western toys, books, worksheets, and other imported materials, as in Namibia. Although the program we studied in Colombia is an exception, the overall ECE policies in the country were derived from a theoretical base consistent with the western discourse of child development and with the language used in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Colombia ratified in 1990. It would not be an overstatement to say that all of these programs provide illustrative examples of globalization as a way of knowing—as not only knowing what but also knowing how. Identifying globalization with epistemology brings us back to the notion of dispositif that we briefly discussed in relation to the use of film in two of the research sites. Foucault’s (1977) work describes dispositif as “a thoroughly heterogeneous ensemble consisting of discourses, institutions, architectural forms, regulatory decisions, laws, administrative measures, scientific statements, philosophical, moral and philanthropic propositions—in short, the said as much as the unsaid” (p. 194). Globalization understood as a dispositif includes a wide range 158

INTERSECTIONS

of elements and players whose effects are not only heterogeneous but also not entirely predictable in local contexts. Globalization as dispositif “ontologizes, and therein lies its function as a specific project of governance” (Larner & Walters, 2004, p. 504). Therefore, as Sidhu (2006) states, “spatialized readings of globalization do not treat the local, national, and global as ontologically separate but as implicating and constituting each other” (p. 46). So we now ask, how is the co-constitutive process experienced in non-Euro-American (local/national) spaces such as the programs we studied in Colombia and Namibia, when the place from which the professional language of ECE is theorized is a Euro-American conceptual (global) space? How is it experienced by the immigrant women in the bridging program in Canada when they needed to reconcile their indigenous understandings of, for example, adult-child relations in regards to showing respect or communicating with children with the Euro-American (global) notions of playbased learning and DAP in the ECTE program? How is it that this global conceptual space has become a reference point and thus has become a specific project of authority? As already discussed, in the ECTE field, the Euro-American academic discourse defines the ideals of preschool education and teacher preparation, as well as the models of the child that underlie them. If we take Heidegger’s (1996) notion that discourse is “the existential-ontological foundation of language” (p. 150), we can see how the ontologizing effect of globalization is related to the professional language in the field of ECE, however differently it might be interpreted and lived in local practice. We can say that globalization ontologizes through language, which, as Heidegger (1982) describes it, is the House of Being. If language is one way of being in the world for humankind that has an immediate presence in the world, and it is one form of discourse (Heidegger, 1982, 1996), then what is it to learn another language? What is the relation of the new language to the first way of being in the world? In our study these questions have particular relevance. Because the professional language in the ECTE field originated in the Euro-American geopolitical and cultural space, learning it could be at odds with the everyday home language for the students in the programs we studied in Canada and Namibia. Using examples mainly from these two programs, we draw insights toward our understanding of (professional) language as the House of (professional) Being. In the Canadian site, the new languages—English and ECE professional language—were presented in the context of a structured program that required the participants to become students. To become a student is to undergo an ontological change, as Packer and Goicoechea (2000) suggest: One moves from being a member of a family, where there are intimate relationships among its members, to being a member of a classroom community in which students and teachers are governed by explicit rules and regulations and by apparently objective constraints, such as the shape and size of the room, the number of people in it, and so forth. In the case of the bridging program, the objective constraints included both the language of instruction (English) and the concepts introduced in the professional ECE language, which one of the instructors in the program referred to as a “third language,” or a “third cultural perspective,” that characterizes ELCC professional 159

CHAPTER 5

competence (Massing & Shortreed, 2014, p. 56). If language is the House of Being, as Heidegger suggests, then different cultures live in different houses. Is dialogue from house to house possible? In our study, the students who learned the professional language in English (in Namibia and Canada) appeared to be “caught between houses.” Learning a new language is more than learning another linguistic code. Heidegger (1996) explains that meaning is related not only to the words or the things they refer to, but most of all to the associations created in the mind. As one of the participants in the Namibian study described, transferring certain concepts in mathematics to written form sometimes first took an explanation of the concept using a student’s first (one of many) Namibian language, if that language included a similar mathematical system to explain the concept. Using Heidegger’s notion to understand the experiences of meaning in the English language that the participants in the bridging program had, we can identify how the new professional language of ECE that they were required to learn lacked associations, and, as a result, was experienced as foreign and created tensions (see Chapter 2). Similarly, using English as an instructional language in the Namibian ECTE program was problematic, since only a few of the student teachers were very fluent in English and the rest found it easier to explain ideas in another Namibian language. The experience of learning to use another language brought feelings of discomfort for the students in the bridging program even when communicating with the children in the centres in which they worked: In my case when the children are upset I think, say, talk, I know can explain, good for my English only, think only (lots of hand gestures) in my language, no when translate no can only hard or other the technique, no can do … for me is very hard. (Pilar, from El Salvador) This account is only one of many we collected over the course of the study that reveal how unsettling being “languagely” (Kirova, 2016) in others’ houses was for these immigrant women. Helen (from Eritrea): I would like to know what the child is doing and then later I want to write (it) down so that I can remember it. (It’s) my habit, even though … I worry about the spelling and order to write. I write in my language because it’s faster. (lots of smiles) Ruta (from Ethiopia): Yes, me too. I have English problem so (I write in) my language, Tigrinya. When one is at home in a language, the mode of thinking and speaking is selfforgetful, and the interaction is truly conversational or dialogic. The mode for using a new language implies a particular type of reflective thinking rather than prereflective living with language. This way of speaking, of choosing the right words, implies a reflective approach to language, an approach that involves suspension from an immediate stance and results in more self-consciousness, “making normal social interaction uncomfortable” (van Manen, 1991, p. 13). But 160

INTERSECTIONS

in the cases above, was it just the use of new (English) language that the students were so self-conscious about? We think not. It was also the professional expectation placed on the students to speak to the children in a particular way (as described in Chapter 2), or to write down their observations of children’s behaviours that made the task of using the new professional (English) language a chore. To come to be truly at home in the language is to come to a different level of experience that requires more than memorizing the meaning or the position of the words in a sentence. Learning a new language does not mean learning a corresponding system of signs for what one already knows. This aspect is only part of the story. Rather, language comes into being as language through dialogue, and therefore comes to an understanding through “a life process in which a community of life is lived out” (Gadamer, 1989, p. 446). Our study revealed some possibility for the ECTE programs to become a “community of life” in a Gadamerian sense (1989), where the students live out the new professional language through genuine dialogue. The programs can be spaces where the language is a mode of “cultural empowerment” and development of selfidentity (Freire, 1972). These new professional self-identities do not need to replace culturally shaped ways of being. As the students’ statements at the end of the program reveal, they gladly embraced this new professional way of being: How I communicate with the children has changed. Listen to them and mirror what they say or do. I have learned to wait and give them options as well as encourage them. I also learn how to say no without saying no, and acknowledge their feelings. (Anonymous course evaluation) The bridging program change a lot of things in my work, ’cause they show us how to create, listen to the child, make guess for the child’s feelings, take the time to understand the child, be present, how to engage new children with others and let them participate, choose self-worth with children, don’t judge, choose polite sentences with the children. I provide open-ended activities for children to explore the materials and create something they like. (Anonymous course evaluation) Perhaps the program in Colombia provides the strongest example of what a genuine dialogue can look like in an ECE training program (Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, 2013). Similar to the bridging program in Canada, the training of early childhood educators in Colombia is conceived of as a dialogic process where the participants access their prior knowledge and experiences as a basis for co-constructing new understanding of early childhood practice, which inevitably would include some aspects of (western) theoretical or foundational knowledge. The involvement of university teacher education instructors as well as community members and Misak coordinators is a “step up” from the bridging program as it aims at preserving Misak language and cultural tradition. However, because some of the university instructors predominantly spoke Spanish, the language spoken in the program was not always Misak and, in the ECE programs, the children similarly switched from Spanish to Misak. The question of language 161

CHAPTER 5

was central when it came to introducing western theoretical concepts from the early childhood comprehensive care strategy, such as early childhood and play, since a number of these concepts simply do not exist in the Misak language. Such tensions became especially apparent in our observations of a planning meeting held by pedagogical coordinators and educators to collaboratively develop a report on Misak education for the Ministry of Education. The master document was projected onto a large screen so that all could view and contribute to its development, and consensus had to be achieved around the wording of each statement in the report. Over a period of several hours, the educators alternately spoke in Misak, wrote in Spanish, and drew diagrams on a whiteboard to support their attempts to translate aspects of their culture and worldview into Spanish. People called out suggestions and the facilitator typed these into the document, then the group debated the wording of each point at length before settling on the “best” version (FN). In this context, then, the educators did not simply receive and enact the dominant ideas and concepts but, as evidenced in the interplay between the two languages, they engaged in meaningful dialogue to co-construct understandings of them in relation to their own beliefs. In so doing, they effectively produced a new professional or “third” language that represented a hybrid mélange of Spanish and Misak, even though each language is underpinned by distinct discourses around teaching and caring for young children. Intersecting Identities—Becoming a Teacher One of the roles of teacher education is to guide students’ development of a professional identity as a teacher that is consistent with the societal ideal of preschool and preschool teachers. More strongly stated, “the enterprise of teaching teachers” is “constructing identities” (Danielewicz, 2001, p. 4). There is clearly much more to learning to teach than acquiring skills for lesson planning, assessment, arranging the learning environment, and so on. The process of becoming a teacher—learning how to think, act, and feel like a teacher and to be perceived by others as one—involves incorporating a new identity through a process of reconstructing existing identities. Professional identities are acknowledged to be complex, nuanced, fluid, and made up of multiple intersecting other identities (Danielewicz, 2001), for example, those of mother, caregiver, and member of an ethnic or cultural group. Whether the process of achieving a professional teacher identity is called a reinvention (Weber & Mitchell, 1995), a metamorphosis (Clark & Flores, 2014), or a reconstruction (Bukor, 2015), it always means a fundamental ontological change to a different self. Developing a “professional” identity in ECE is especially complex. As Goffin (2013) notes, although ECE aspires to be a profession and has “appropriated professional terminology” (p. 25), in North America it is not a profession: ECE as a field of practice lacks both the attributes and organization associated with recognized professions: clarity of purpose; organizing structures and supportive institutions that bound practitioners by common 162

INTERSECTIONS

knowledge and skills; clear scopes of practice; responsibility for developing and applying a specialized knowledge base; and shared acceptance of ethical responsibility to perform at a level of competence capable of consistently promoting children’s learning and development. (p. 39) Developing a “professional identity,” as a role of ECTE, is therefore distinctive across the cases. In Namibia, it is undertaken in a professional program in the context of a four-year bachelor’s degree, and in Canada and Colombia, training programs which do not lead to a credential. However, there are situations that complicate the notion of professional: for example, graduates from the preprimary/lower primary program in Namibia may eventually teach in communitybased centres for ECD—a sector lacking a professional organization—as the country strives to improve the quality of personnel in the early years. While all participants in the Canadian bridging program were working in child care during the course of the two-year program, they needed additional training provided by a private training institute (or, if they could have met the entrance requirements, a postsecondary institution) to advance their certification level. Five of the 19 students were enrolled in that additional training/certification program while attending the bridging program. In the discussion that follows, professional identity is seen in relation to both sectors—the formally recognized teaching profession, and ECE in non-school or informal contexts. Although early childhood educators are not part of a profession in North America, they share a common history as well as a language and practices, and they may self-identify as professionals. For some preservice teachers, a professional identity is a step closer to their personal identity than it is for others. Weber and Mitchell (1995) describe how this is the case for white, middle-class preservice teachers: Through the influence of popular culture and their own schooling, “it seems probable … that before they leave their childhood behind, many [of these] girls have already assimilated the images of teachers’ actions, work, and appearance into their self-identity-asfemale” (p. 43). Weber and Mitchell note that this likely is not true for “anyone whose race, social class, or background does not correspond to prevailing images of teachers,” who in this case may “define ‘teacher’ as ‘someone not like me’” (p. 43). Intersecting with the “foreign” Gomez, Black, and Allen (2007) studied a white preservice teacher’s professional identity development in the United States in relation to Bakhtin’s concept of “ideological becoming,” which is a process that is both gradual and laden with conflict. Though her personal identity included aspects of the teacher role (as Weber and Mitchell described), her prior experience did not prepare her for teaching children with culturally different experiences or from another social class. For the preservice teacher, the tension centred on encountering the discourse of the Other: “The importance of struggling with another’s discourse, its influence in the history of an individual’s consciousness, is enormous” (Bakhtin, 1981, cited in Gomez, Black, & Allen, 2007, p. 2109). Gomez, Black, and Allen framed the preservice teacher’s “ideological becoming” as a struggle with the discourses of 163

CHAPTER 5

race, diversity, and social justice introduced to her in the curriculum of the university program. Such struggles can lead to understanding a different “social language” and hence to reorganizing thought and self as part of the process of identity development. In a Bakhtinian sense, then, the learner must be able to populate the discourse produced in the ECTE program with her or his own intentions so that it becomes “tightly interwoven with one’s own word” (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 345). The meanings of these words, concepts, and ideas need to be questioned, tested, and negotiated by the learner in dialogue with others, with the self, and with discourse in order to make them internally persuasive (Matusov & von Duyke, 2010). When there exists a gap between the authoritative discourse, including the social language, taught in the program and the learner’s interpretations in relation to their own prior experiences, it can be challenging to come to a dialogical understanding in this manner. However, Bakhtin (1981) posited that such a gap is also integral to the individual’s “becoming,” because it is within this tensionality that the learner comes to produce a new identity. Not all social languages carry the same weight, however. For preservice teachers who are from a nondominant cultural group, taking on the professional identity of a teacher is a process fraught with layers of tensions. Images of the ideal teacher exist in popular cultures and in ideals of teaching and learning, which are culturally based, such as understandings about the relationship between a teacher and learner, ways of discipline, use of language, and so forth. As discussed in Chapter 2, the students in the Canadian bridging program, as in the Namibian university program, had assimilated images of teachers based on their childhood experiences. Jackson and Abosi (2006) suggested some African images of teachers based on cultural values and reflecting the respect-obedience model of parenting (LeVine et al., 1994): teachers are shown high respect, with older teachers afforded greatest respect; teachers are expected to show preference for students if asked to do so by a person with higher social power; “teachers and pupils expect that any communication will be initiated by the teacher” (p. 201); and “teachers are expected to have all the answers” (p. 201). These images contrast with the view in dominant ECE discourse, as seen in the Canadian and Namibian cases, in which ideal preschool teachers are facilitators of learning, especially learning through play, a situation requiring children and teachers to be active. Ideal preschool teachers are also researchers, assembling evidence of learning and teaching as a means to “theorize about their practice” (Vorkapić, Vujicčić, & Čepić, 2014, p. 27). The “culturally different” teachers in the bridging program in our study struggled with foreign professional discourses to which they were introduced in their courses and which can be described as a process of normalization. Steinbock’s (1995) description of the normalization process as a liminal experience that has two modes is very insightful for the purposes of our analysis. The two modes he identifies are appropriation (e.g., repeating, ritual, communication, narrative, renewal) and transgression (e.g., encounter with the alien). The immigrant women who participated in the Canadian study experienced foreignness as transgression in all three dimensions that define foreign (Lippitz, 2007): the 164

INTERSECTIONS

axiological, concerning values: between good and evil, same and different, familiar and unfamiliar, beautiful and ugly, etc.; the praxeological, concerning praxis: between convergence and divergence, integration and differentiation, super- and subordination, acceptance and rejection, etc.; and the epistemological, concerning knowledge and perception: between knowledge and ignorance, the familiar and the unfamiliar (p. 78). Each of these dimensions is seen in the context of the bridging program’s content and structure in relation to foreign values of showing respect. Many of the participants saw “respect” (parental/teacher authority) as an important value for children to learn and express in their relationships with adults. Very strong parents give the good example to their children. … For us, parents teach us to be respectful to everybody … how to respect … the way you are responding people has to be the right way. (Sisay, Ethiopia) However, some of the participants felt that the way they were taught by their parents to show respect and that they passed on to their children was not acceptable in Canada: I say to my daughter you have to show respect and you have to give them a hug. She goes to school and teachers say no hug. She comes to me: How come you say I have to give hugs to everybody? It was a little confusing. When we watch (she waves) in our culture if someone greets you and you have to be very open. It’s not like it’s “I’m good now, are you? [with] eye contact and everything. She comes to Canada … “You know what? I love you … thank you.” (Laughter). So she was … she said, “How come you confuse me, you teach me things from different cultures?” (Tersit, Ethiopia) Many participants perceived that they themselves were not being treated respectfully in their workplace and were wondering how children will learn to respect their teachers as well as other adults if they are not provided with a good example. Cathy, a teacher in Vietnam, has noticed that directors of child care centres are often disrespectful of immigrant and refugee staff. “How,” she wonders, “can children learn to respect their teachers and respect each another when the director is not providing a model? … My mom always said listen to your teachers … they’re the ones that can help.” Students in the bridging program also struggled with the preschool discourse of learning through play. In the memories of many, play as a child was with groups of children, was combined with chores, away from adult supervision, and almost exclusively outdoors. In cases where children see teachers to be authorities—that is, to have all the answers—school learning is under strict adult supervision and direct instruction. Teaching and learning via play in school is therefore not possible without an epistemological change to a new way of being for both children and teachers. Of course, to the extent that this occurs for children, a number of studies have shown how their new “preschooler” way of being can cause problems at home (Lall, 2011; Mauigoa-Tekene, 2006), where, parents complain, “the children are becoming the teacher” (Lall, 2011, p. 230).

165

CHAPTER 5

A new way of being While professional language is infused across all teacher education experiences, some strategies are specially designed to promote identity development, for example, exercises involving imagination of future practice, and reflection (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2006) in which preservice teachers articulate their understandings in discussions or journals, an approach representing a distinctive epistemological tradition. Moreover, because examining one’s childhood and experiences as a learner is often used by instructors as an initial step toward developing a teacher identity, reflection does not necessarily acknowledge continuing experiences of child socialization, including those as a parent. Teaching practice involving working in a classroom of an accredited school with a teacher mentor is a standard element of teacher education, considered essential for developing skills, understanding the relationship between theory and practice, and developing teacher identity. Time in a classroom “in relationship” with children and a mentor teacher helps develop experiential knowledge (Cuenca, 2011). Included is knowledge of the “things” (lesson plans, agendas) and rituals of teaching (learning routines, grading), and sometimes “artifacts” from a mentor teacher, such as handouts and lesson plans to use in their own classrooms (Cuenca, p. 121). In this way, “legitimizing practices” (Cuenca, p. 126), for example, the collegial notion that teachers freely share resources, are achieved through an apprenticeship. Identity development occurs in ECTE programs through implicit and explicit processes. Moreover, it does not occur only in the time/space of a program, though the program (courses, internships, etc.) contributes to it. Professional identity is “partly given and partly achieved” (Coldron & Smith, 1999), meaning that a degree of shared or common past experience is assumed and used as a basis on which to build identity. This situation is complicated when students have diverse past experiences, as we have seen in the Canadian and Namibian cases. Nevertheless, once students enter a teacher education program they are expected to use and understand the normative “professional” language, which, when internalized, becomes an authoritative discourse in their teaching by providing “specific forms for manifesting intentions [and] forms for making conceptualization and evaluation concrete” (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 289). If, as Lippitz (2007) suggests, “we understand education and our own pedagogical reality as an active and reflective practice which arises, and is changed and maintained in systems of order” (p. 78), then education, like other social services fields, is “thoroughly interpenetrated by foreignness” (Lippitz, p. 78). In the Canadian site, the participants in the bridging program needed to first of all become students, that is, to undergo an ontological change, as Packer and Goicoechea (2000) suggest. As already mentioned, students in the bridging program needed to reconcile their indigenous understandings of, for example, adult-child relations in regards to showing respect or communicating with children, with dominant western notions of play-based learning and DAP in the ECTE program. Further yet, they had to give up their own culturally shaped ways of being in order to replace them with the new (professional) ones in order to be 166

INTERSECTIONS

accepted in the community of professional early childhood educators. As their statements at the end of the program reveal, they gladly embraced this new way of being. In relation to changed expectations regarding respect, one student wrote: I learned that there are jobs the children need to do and not to expect a thank you every time. Other things need a thank you. The program helped me to understand the children, to go down to their level to talk to them and to listen to them carefully. (Anonymous course evaluation) In relation to changed praxis, another student commented: “I use ‘I’ messages and active listening when talking with children” (Anonymous course evaluation). And in relation to a student’s changed understanding of ways of knowing, a student said, Observe the activities when the children are playing and provide the activities. I learnt how to play with [children]. (Anonymous course evaluation) Teaching and Parenting The interplay of the identities of teacher and parent is pertinent to our study; indigenous approaches to child socialization have been shown to be in tension with “professional” practices. Indeed, teaching and parenting, particularly mothering, are often depicted in the professional literature as having different aims. In his book Teaching for Success: Developing Your Teacher Identity in Today’s Classroom, Olsen (2016) begins by listing “distorted” images of teaching that are rooted in history, including the idea that teaching is “predominantly women’s work, akin to child-raising” (p. 3). Yet, schools are actually a context for childrearing (Bronfenbrenner, 1979a) in which preschool teachers attend to children’s behaviour and growth. Separate roles As psychologist Elly Singer (1992) explains, the separation of parents’ and teachers’ roles in preschool discourse is embedded in the “mythic story of preschool’s origins” (p. 18), which she traces to Johann Friedrich Oberlin’s school for poor, rural children in Alsace in the late 18th century. Singer identified one of the themes in the story as “the ambiguous position” (p. 18) of mothers in relation to the new idea of the preschool teacher: A distinction is made between ignorant mothers and those women/mothers with special pedagogic talents. … Those chosen to be educators also had the task of educating the mothers. This brought about an ambiguous situation with regard to the mothers. On the one hand, mothers were given more time by [having their children in] the school, enabling them to do more work on the land and in the home, but, on the other hand, the ideal being put across by the educators at the school was that of the “ever-available mother,” in a space especially created for children. The fact that mothers were unable to care for 167

CHAPTER 5

their children due to their activities was used to realize an educational ideal in which educators offered the children their exclusive attention. (p. 19) Preschools were thus established not only as an additional context for childrearing, but one that was superior to homes, especially for children from poor families. Preschool teachers’ professional identity included a judgment of mothers, who, it was suggested, could never be “ever available” or respond to their children in the appropriate (scientific) manner, as could teachers. This is reflected in early childhood teacher educator Susan Isaacs’s (1948/2013) list of the advantages of preschools compared to homes: preschools have more space, better play materials, and plenty of same-age peers, all under the rational management of a professional teacher in a quasi-domestic setting. As Isaacs noted, teachers and mothers have their specific roles to play: children “need true scientific understanding as well as mother-wit and mother-love.” And armed with professional knowledge, “the nursery school teacher can often help where the mother would fail” (p. 72). Formal ECE settings became the main context for “teaching” young children. The professionalization movement in ECE in the 1970s and an increased focus on school readiness delimited teachers’ ideal function to children’s learning. As described by Katz (1984), who distinguished the tendencies of professional (teacher) and nonprofessional (mother) caregivers (see Table 5.1), mothering’s scope is “diffuse and limitless” whereas teaching is “specific and limited.” This mothering ideology was aided by a century of child-rearing advice and scientific studies on infant attachment, through which “good mothers” were defined as “fulltime, at-home, White, middle-class, and entirely fulfilled through domestic aspirations” (Johnston & Swanson, 2006, p. 509). Table 5.1. Distinctions between mothering and teaching in their central tendencies on seven dimensions ROLE DIMENSION Scope of functions Intensity of affect Attachment Rationality Spontaneity

MOTHERING Diffuse and limitless High Optimum attachment Optimum irrationality Optimum spontaneity

Partiality Scope of responsibility

Partial Individual

TEACHING Specific & limited Low Optimum detachment Optimum rationality Optimum intentionality Impartial Whole group

Source: Katz (1984, p. 15)

The ambiguous position of mothers in normative ECE discourse is blurred further by the idea that mothers are their child’s “natural” first teachers. Comenius, and later Pestalozzi and Froebel, described early education beginning at home under the tuition of a maternal teacher. For Froebel, mothers needed specific training in kindergarten methods for their teacher role—the “mother made 168

INTERSECTIONS

conscious” (Steedman, 1985) through education. Steedman (1985) writes of the “alignment” (p. 152) of roles of mothers and teachers in the case of middle-class mothers in 19th-century Britain. In that era, ECTE often included mothers studying along with prospective teachers. Teacher and parent roles and knowledge base continue to be aligned in important respects. This is reflected in the Namibian Preprimary Teachers’ Manual, in which teachers are encouraged to share the manual with parents, who will find it “extremely useful … to enable them to enrich the experience of pre-schoolers in their care [i.e., their children]” (Republic of Namibia, 2014, p. 1). In this way parents and teachers work together using a common curriculum and methods, with parents providing the foundation for children’s development and teachers interpreting what a child brings to school and using it for “further experience and learning” (p. 12). In contrast with Katz’s view that the attachment tendencies of mothers and teachers are distinct, teaching and parenting pedagogies converge on the dimension of attachment. Indeed, attachment theory is promoted by teacher educator Philip Riley (2013) as a framework for understanding teacher-student relationships and “hope for a better future” for “insecurely attached students” (p. 13). Psychologists Bowlby and Ainsworth developed a theory of child-caregiver attachment in the mid-20th century (Bretherton, 1992). In attachment theory, in the process of helping her child build self-confidence and self-discipline, the mother’s power should remain as far as possible invisible [so that] the child will accept her wishes as something he wants himself. … The mother must act as though she has no power. If her power becomes visible it is thought to be ‘unnatural’ and dangerous for the child’s self-confidence. (Singer, 1993, p. 434) Attachment theory is the basis for a parenting pedagogy (Singer, 1993) that is also used by teachers. The “invisible” teacher whose power is concealed from the child was described by Rousseau (1964)—”There is no subjection so complete as that which preserves the appearance of liberty” (p. 107)—and is part of normative ECE practice. In Australia, for example, ECE “has been dominated by a belief that the adult should have a limited role in children’s play activities” (PramlingSamuelsson & Fleer, 2009, p. 186). A teacher’s “planning should focus on providing materials” (p. 186), after which she should step back to take a role as observer. Again, with reference to the Namibian Pre-primary Teachers’ Manual, teachers are described as primarily “guides or facilitators” (Republic of Namibia, 2014, p. 10). For white middle-class preservice teachers, many of whom have assimilated images of ideal mothers and ideal teachers in which aspects of the roles have been conflated, the distance between personal and professional identities is closed even further. And for students from nondominant cultural groups struggling with a foreign discourse of mothering and teaching, the gap is widened.

169

CHAPTER 5

Intersecting roles Whereas parents are actual educators, professional ECE discourse established a tension between parents and educators. The discourse is reflected in policy statements that portray parents as first teachers/educators, or as partners with (professional) teachers in their child’s education. Indigenous perspectives reveal quite different understandings of parent and teacher roles and relationships. As described by Nsamenang (2011), “African parents do not actively ‘raise’ children; parental values create participative spaces that permit children to emerge or mature by themselves out of one set of developmental tasks into the next” (p. 61). The family is not a context for “child raising” in his explanation; children, in relationship with adults, have an active role in their own growth and development. This is shown in an example of a “participative space” supported by parenting practices of Turkana pastoralists of Kenya: When ordered to go out and play by their parents, children run away and disappear into their playing areas. Culturally, the presence of the child around the mother indicates incompetence and developmental dysfunction. Playing at a distance from parents is regarded as an opportunity to learn with others and be challenged to develop normatively. (Ng’aslke, 2015, p. 106) Older peers and siblings have an important role in “teaching”: they often “act as father or mother,” and “readily correct, supervise or mentor” younger children, thus rehearsing “roles of adult models” (Nsamenang, 2005, p. 333). In the Colombian case, there was more fluidity in roles as mothers and fathers both assume equal responsibility for child-rearing and, by extension, both men and women take on positions as educators in the community. Female elders are paired with male assistants or male elders with female assistants, which implicitly confirms that neither gender assumes a more dominant or subordinate role in teaching or caring for children.4 Since community members change their jobs every year or two, however, someone might be an educator for only one year and then resume their role as a parent, but performing a very similar function. The positions become interwoven as the expectations, concepts, and practices underpinning the professional role come to influence the parenting role and vice versa. In effect, the ECTE program is preparation for being a parent, while parenting is also training for being an educator. In spite of the overlaps between these two roles, educators occupy a slightly more privileged position; they are viewed as “experts” in the sense that they facilitate classes aimed at teaching both children and their parents about the local context as well as the Misak culture and language.

–––––––––––––– 4 Many natural elements in the Misak territory (e.g., soils, rocks, plants, seeds) are separated into masculine or feminine based on the characteristics. Typically the female is seen as more fertile or productive than the male; for instance, plants flourish in feminine soils while they die in male soils (Interview, Taita Manuel).

170

INTERSECTIONS

IMPLICATIONS FOR ECTE

The study presented three illustrative cases of the impacts of globalization on the early childhood educational landscape—on both ECE practice and ECTE. Our analysis of the policy documents available to us in the three countries included in the study shed light on the ways in which western conceptualizations of childhood and early childhood development and western views of the child have shaped the views of the early childhood educator in these contexts. The study is not the first to point to the impact of western developmental psychology and universal views of the child on early childhood education in nonwestern contexts (see, for example, Lall, 2011; Sriprakash, 2012; Viruru, 2001). The study’s contribution to the global critical discourse is that it offers an analysis of each of the cases as examples of dispositif (Foucault, 1977). As “a thoroughly heterogeneous ensemble consisting of discourses, institutions, architectural forms, regulatory decisions, laws, administrative measures, scientific statements, philosophical, moral and philanthropic propositions” (Foucault, p. 194), dispositif allowed us to see each of these cases as “singularities”—a term used by Deleuze and Guattari (1987) to indicate discontinuity or points of unpredictability that offered us a way of discussing how this heterogeneous assemblage represents “the contradictory and multiple ways in which relations of desire (for commodities and other things), power and knowledge flow among individuals” (Readings, 1996, p. 116), as well as among institutions. In our study, the desire for an ideal/idealized form of care and socialization where the objective was determined by individual societies’ ideas about children’s needs, articulated in the policy documents we reviewed, was in a uniquely complex relationship with local knowledge held by the individuals who were either teacher educators (as in the Namibian case) or teachers of young children (as in the Namibian and Canadian cases). The societal idealized form of care and socialization, however, was heavily influenced by the globalized (scientific) discourse of child development and the discourse of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which too was drawn from that discourse. The authoritative power inherent in these two related and complementary discourses was experienced as a tension between the authority of the policy documents and the administrative bodies in charge of overseeing their implementation, on the one hand, and the ways in which these discourses were negotiated by the participants in the study at each of the research sites, on the other hand. As a form of disciplinary power (Foucault, 1977), the western (scientific) discourses of child development and children’s rights shaped not only the image of what children should be (as in the models of the child) but also what the image of early childhood practices should be (as in the models of preschool and preschool teaching). Furthermore, these discourses shaped the early childhood educators to fit a particular mold, thus forcing many (nonwestern) ECTE students to undertake a significant ontological change which, as demonstrated in our study, required them to forgo their culturally constructed, embodied ways of being with young children (as in the Canadian case). With the exception of the community program in 171

CHAPTER 5

Colombia, the programs included in our study can be seen as examples of the ways in which western disciplinary power was used (both in the content of the programs and the pedagogical tools), to varying degrees, to “persuade groups of individuals to behave in a certain way without provoking them into thinking critically about what they are being asked to do” (Ransom, 1997, pp. 30–31). Ransom’s discussion of the dangerous role that disciplinary power can play in shaping behaviours brings us to the importance of teacher education programs to disrupt the existing disciplinary discourses by prompting us to ask questions about how the current taken-for-granted knowledge, which originated within the Euro-American scientific community, came to be seen as universal, right, and “true.” How do we as teacher educators participate or disrupt the knowledge production associated with the discipline we teach? Are we acutely aware of our own privileged position as “truth holders”? Are we acutely aware of the tensions our students may experience when they bump against the dominant discourses? Do we know how to engage with them in a process of interrogating these discourses and negotiating and perhaps creating new ones that bear more meaning in the local contexts in which teaching and learning of young children happen? To use the examples from our study, we can ask: Did the programs in Canada and Namibia, in which the language of instruction was English, not the students’ first language, utilize the openings provided by that fact to explore with the students the questions “How does the new professional language relate to the language I speak at home?” “What worldviews are embedded in these different languages?” As researchers and not instructors in these three programs, we had a particular and quite limited role to play in regard to the content and pedagogy instructors used. What these final thoughts about the study attempt to offer is not a criticism of what we observed and documented over the course of the study, but rather a reflection on the possibilities we can now identify that perhaps might be helpful to other teacher educators who, like our participants, are caught between multiple, competing, and, as we noted, sometimes conflicting discourses. These discourses in the area of early learning and child care reflect local cultural beliefs as well as national/global ideological patterns of values and scientific (western) truths about who the child is, how she or he learns, and what the outcomes of this process of learning should look like. Adopting one of these discourses (the professional early childhood discourse) at the expense of the other (cultural/traditional/local discourse of child care and socialization) in the nonwestern contexts is likely to result in an “abridged” rather than “enhanced” sense of self. While being a student requires an ontological change (Packer & Goicoechea, 2000), one identity is never entirely replaced by the other: The students still go home after school and live in the communities from which they come. Thus, asking students to relinquish their (local/cultural) views of the child and themselves as teachers and replace them with what the global professional discourse of early childhood shapes them into (based on a set of standards, as in Namibia) can produce tensions that are not easily resolved (as in Canada), nor should they be. In fact, the study’s strength is that it provides examples of how the intersection of these discourses results in outcomes that are unpredictable. For instance, some of the students in the bridging program 172

INTERSECTIONS

appropriated the professional identity expected of them and became more comfortable toward the end of the program with applying the concept of play as a learning strategy. They stated that they were able to get down to the children’s level to talk to them, to listen to them, to give them attention, and to engage with them. Others remained closer to the image of the teacher they held from their childhood and were more comfortable with more direct/didactic teaching approaches even when children were playing; they were asking probing questions about colour, shape, or number of blocks they had used that would teach children specific mathematical concepts (as described in Chapter 2). The intersection of the multiple discourses discussed so far had another expression in Colombia. Although the language of instruction in the program was Misak, and there were no words to translate key concepts introduced through the dominant discourses, such as play, the invention of hybrid materials (such as child-sized gardening tools) that were used by the children in the program in a meaningful way indicated that some concepts could be operationalized in practice. However, other attempts to bring the western child development discourses in relation to materials (such as puzzles) to two dimensions to stimulate spatial orientation and fine motor skills in children resulted in superficial alteration of the materials (i.e., replacement of the pictures on the puzzle with Misak images) that were not meaningful in the context of that community. It would not be accurate to say that the intersections we just mentioned were planned and therefore were intended outcomes of the programs’ content or the pedagogical approaches utilized by the instructors. The question we are now returning to is, “How can teacher educators provoke critical discussions about such intersections so that the authoritative power of the western discourses is challenged and possibly undermined in order to make legitimate space for local discourses?” Perhaps the first and the most meaningful (and immediate) change we can make is in ourselves. We need to begin actively and openly to discuss the Euro-American philosophical foundations of the dominant discourses and present them as such, thus stripping them of their privileged position of universally applicable truths about children, childhood, and early childhood education. We need to discuss them as possibly being in conflict with local (culturally constructed) discourses and actively solicit examples from the students in the ECTE programs of such conflicts and the tensions they may create in the students’ sense of self as members of both the local community and culture and the early childhood professional community. We agree with Austin, Willett, Gebhard, and Montes (2010) who stress that we not only need to be critical of the impact our own discourses have on our students, but we should also take active “roles to mediate the multiple discourses through open dialogue” (p. 282). Especially when working with students from nondominant and majority world contexts, teacher educators and student teachers must be empowered to create their own hybrid early childhood theory and practice. In turn, this should facilitate the intersection of local and global discourses that will best serve the communities in which they teach.

173

CHAPTER 5

REFERENCES Adams, C. (2006). PowerPoint, habits of mind, and classroom culture. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 38(4), 389–411. doi: 10.1080/00220270600579141 Akahara, A. A. (2013). Pre-primary education in Nigeria: Methods for effective teaching and learning. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse. Almy, M. (1976). The past present and future for the early childhood researcher. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 1, 1–13. Alvestad, M., & Pramling Samuelsson, I. (1999). A comparison of the national preschool curricula of Norway and Sweden. Early Childhood Research and Practice, 1(2). Retrieved from: http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v1n2/alvestad.html Apple, M. (1995). Education and power (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. Arreman, I. E., Erixon, P.-O., & Rehn, K.-G. (2015). Postcolonial teacher education reform in Namibia: Travelling of policies and ideas. European Educational Research Journal, 15(2), 236–259. Retrieved from: http://eer.sagepub.com/content/15/2/236.full.pdf Austin, T., Willett, J., Gebhard, M., & Montes, L. (2010). Challenges for Latino educators crossing symbolic, cultural, and linguistic boundaries: Coming to voice in teacher preparation with competing voices. Journal of Latinos and Education, 9(4), 262–283. Australian Government Department of Education. (2009). Belonging, being, and becoming: The early years learning framework for Australia. Commonwealth of Australia. Retrieved from: https://www.coag.gov.au/sites/default/files/early_years_learning_framework.pdf Awopegba, P. O., Oduolowu, E. A., & Nsamenang, A. B. (2013). Indigenous early childhood care and education curriculum framework for Africa: A focus on context and contents. Paris, France: UNESCO. Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). The dialogic imagination (M. Holquist, Ed., C. Emerson & M. Holquist, Trans.). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. (Original published in 1975) Balmés, T. (Director). (2010). Babies [motion picture]. Issy-les-Moulineaux, France: Studio Canal. Banks, J. A., & Banks, C. M. (2007). Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives (6th ed.) Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Beauchamp, C., & Thomas, L. (2009). Understanding teacher identity: An overview of issues in the literature and implications for teacher education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 39(2), 175–189. Bennett, M. J. (2013). (Ed.). Basic concepts of intercultural communication: Paradigms, principles, and practice: Selected readings (eBook version). Retrieved from: eds.a.ebscohost.com.eproxy.library. ualberta.ca Blessing, D. (2011). Babies, directed by Thomas Balmes, France, 2010. Infant Observation, 14(3), 351– 357. Bradshaw, J. R. (1972). The concept of social need. New Society, 496, 640–643. Bredekamp, S., & Copple, C. (2009). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children. Bretherton, I. (1992). The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. Developmental Psychology, 28(5), 759–775. Brison, K. J. (2011). Producing ‘confident’ children: Negotiating childhood in Fijian kindergartens. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 42(3), 230–244. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979a). Contexts of child rearing: Problems and prospects. American Psychologist, 34(10), 844–850. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979b). The ecology of human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Bukor, E. (2015). Exploring teacher identity from a holistic perspective: Reconstructing and reconnecting personal and professional selves. Teachers and Teaching, 21(3), 305–327. doi: 10.1080/13540602.2014.953818 Burton, L. J. (2012). Building on living traditions: Early childhood education and culture in Solomon Islands. Current Issues in Comparative Education, 15(10), 157–175.

174

INTERSECTIONS Cannella, G. S. (1997). Deconstructing early childhood education: Social justice and revolution (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Peter Lang. Chaiklin, S. (2014). A theoretical framework for analysing preschool teaching: A cultural-historical science perspective. Learning, Culture, and Social Interaction, 3, 224–231. Retrieved from: http://psy.ku.dk/bokse_paa_forsiden/learning-culture-and-social-interaction/_first_author__2014_ Learning_-Culture-and-Social-Interaction_224.pdf Clark, E. R., & Flores, B. B. (2014). The metamorphosis of teacher identity: An intersection of ethnic consciousness, self-conceptualization, and belief systems. In P. M. Jenlink (Ed.), Teacher identity and the struggle for recognition: Meeting the challenges of a diverse society (pp. 3–14). New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield. Cleghorn, A., & Prochner, L. (2010). Shades of globalization in three early childhood settings: Views from India, South Africa, and Canada. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense. Cleverley, J., & Phillips, D. C. (1986). Visions of childhood: Influential models from Locke to Spock. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Coldron, J., & Smith, R. (1999). Active location in teachers’ construction of their professional identities. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 31(6), 711–726. Cuenca, A. (2011). The role of legitimacy in student teaching: Learning to “feel” like a teacher. Teacher Education Quarterly, 38(2), 117–130. Danielewicz, J. (2001). Teaching selves: Identity, pedagogy, and teacher education. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. Dean, H. (2010). Understanding human need: Social issues, policy and practice. Bristol, England: Policy. Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia (B. Massumi, Trans.). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. (Original work published 1980) Dombro, A. L., Jablon, J. R., & Stetson, C. (2011). Powerful interactions: How to interact with children to extend their learning. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children. Edwards, G. (2014). Pre-service teachers’ growth as practitioners of developmentally appropriate practice: A Vygotskian analysis of constraints and affordances in the English context. European Journal of Teacher Education, 37(1), 4–17. doi: 10.1080/02619768.2013.787592 Fasoli, L. (2003). Reading photographs of young children: Looking at pictures. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 4(1), 32–47. Felippa, M. G., Delgado, R. I. O., Sabelli, M. J. G., & de Zambonini, S. R. (2015). El cine y la enseñanza de la enfermería materno infantil: Un puente hacia los contenidos. Revista de Medicina y Cine, 11(3), 140–146. Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison (A. Sheridan, Trans.). London, England: Penguin. (Original published 1975) Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Herder & Herder. Gadamer, H. (1989). Truth and method (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Crossroads. Gee, J. (2008). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses. New York, NY: Routledge. Goffin, S. (2013). Early childhood education for a new era: Leading for our profession. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Gomez, M. L., Black, R. W., & Allen, A-R. (2007). ‘Becoming’ a teacher. Teachers College Record, 109(9), 2107–2135. Grieshaber, S., & Ryan, S. (2006). Beyond certainties: Postmodern perspectives, research, and the education of young children. In B. Spodek & O. Saracho (Eds.), Handbook of research on the education of young children (pp. 533–555). New York, NY: Routledge. Grinberg, S. M. (2015). Governmentally and pedagogical apparatuses in management times. Sisyphus, 3(3), 88–109. Hall, E. (2013). The power of hidden differences. In M. J. Bennett (Ed.), Basic concepts of intercultural communication: Paradigms, principles, and practice: Selected readings (eBook version). Boston, MA: Intercultural Press.

175

CHAPTER 5 Heidegger, M. (1982). On the way to language. New York, NY: Harper & Row. Heidegger, M. (1996). Being and time (J. Stambaugh, trans.). Albany, NY: SUNY Press. Hess, D. (2007). From “Banished” to “Brother Outsider,” “Miss Navajo” to “An Inconvenient Truth”: Documentary films as perspective-laden narratives. Social Education, 71(4), 194–199. Isaacs, S. (2013). Childhood and after. Oxon, England: Routledge. (Original work published 1948) Jackson, K., & Abosi, O. (2006). South of the desert: A teacher guide to child development in SubSaharan Africa. Pretoria, South Africa: UNISA Press. Jackson, P. W. (1968). The teacher and the machine. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press. Jackson, P. W. (1998). Child-centered education for Pacific-Rim cultures? Early Child Development and Care, 143, 47–57. Johanningmeier, E. V. (2009). Culture epoch theory. In E. F. Provenzo & A. B. Provenzo (Eds.), Encyclopedia of the social and cultural foundations of knowledge (p. 221). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Johnston, D. D., & Swanson, D. H. (2006). Constructing the “good mother”: The experience of mothering ideologies by work status. Sex Roles, 54, 509–519. Katz, L. G. (1984). Roles of mothers and teachers. In More talks with teachers. Washington, DC: National Institute of Education, US Department of Education. Retrieved from: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED250099.pdf Kilderry, (2007). Pedagogies in Australian early childhood education. In R. S. New & M. Cochran (Eds.), Early childhood education: An international encyclopaedia (Vol. 4; pp. 867–913). Westport, CT: Praeger. Kirova, A. (2016). Phenomenology of inclusion, belonging, and language. In M. A. Peters (Ed.), Encyclopedia of educational philosophy and theory. New York, NY: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978981-287-532-7_97-1 Kuhn, T. S. (1962/1996). The structure of scientific revolution (3rd ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Lall, M. (2011). Pushing the child centered approach in Myanmar: The role of cross national policy networks and the effects on the classroom. Critical Studies in Education, 52(3), 219–33. Larner, W., & Walters, W. (2004). Globalization as governmentality. Alternatives, 29(5), 495–514. LeVine, R. A., Dixon, S., LeVine, S., Richman, A., Leiderman, P. H., Keefer, C. H., & Brazelton, T. B. (1994). Child care and culture: Lessons from Africa. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Lippitz, W. (2007). Foreignness and otherness in pedagogical contexts. Phenomenology and Practice, 1(1), 76–96. Lobman, C., & Ryan, S. (2007). Differing discourses on early childhood teacher development. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 28, 367–380. Makovichuk, L., Hewes, J., Lirette, P., & Thomas, N. (2014). Play, participation, and possibilities: An early learning and child care framework for Alberta. Retrieved from: http://childcareframework.com/play-participation-and-possibilities/ Massing, C. A., & Shortreed, L. (2014). Teaching and learning with immigrant and refugee child care educators. Report for Alberta Ministry of Human Services, Edmonton, Alberta. Masson, E. (2012). Watch and learn: Rhetorical devices in classroom films after 1940. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Amsterdam University Press. Matusov, E., & von Duyke, K. (2010). Bakhtin’s notion of the internally persuasive discourse in education: Internal to what? A case of discussion of issues of foul language in teacher education. In K. Junefelt & P. Nordin (Eds.), Proceedings from the second international interdisciplinary conference on perspectives and limits of dialogism in Mikhail Bakhtin, Stockholm University, Sweden, June 3–5, 2009 (pp. 174–199). Stockholm, Sweden: Stockholm University. Maudlin, J. G., Sandlin, J. A., & Thaller, J. (2012). Baby culture and the curriculum of consumption: A critical reading of the film “Babies.” Pedagogy, Culture, & Society, 20(2), 211–229.

176

INTERSECTIONS Mauigoa-Tekene, L. (2006). Enhancing teachers’ questioning skills to improve children’s learning and thinking in Pacific Island early childhood centers. New Zealand Journal of Teachers’ Work, 3(1),12–23. May, H., Kaur, B., & Prochner, L. (2014). Empire, education, and indigenous childhoods: Nineteenth century missionary infant schools in three British colonies. Farnham, England: Ashgate. McLane, B. A. (2012). A new history of documentary film (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Continuum. McLuhan, M., & McLuhan, E. (1988). Laws of media: The new science. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press. Misak Autoridad, GEIM, & UNICEF Colombia. (2009a). Orientaciones educativas y lenguajes expresivos de la cultura Misak para el fortalecimiento de la educación preescolar: Unidades de aprendizaje. Popayán, Colombia: Universidad del Cauca. Misak Autoridad, GEIM, & UNICEF Colombia (2009b). Resignificación de la estructura del sistema colectivo de educación para la vida Misak. Popayán, Colombia: Universidad del Cauca. Modica, S., Ajmera, M., & Dunning, V. (2010). Culturally adapted models of early childhood education. Young Children, 65(6), 20–26. Moss, P. (2006). Structures, understandings and discourses: Possibilities for re-envisioning the early childhood worker. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 7(1), 30–41. doi: 10.2304/ ciec.2006.7.1.30 Myers, R. G. (1992). The twelve who survive: Strengthening programmes of early development in the third world. New York, NY: Routledge in cooperation with UNESCO for the Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development. Retrieved from: http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/ PNABN486.pdf Namibia Resource Consultants. (2001). Review of Namibia’s early childhood development policy and its implementation: Namibia country case study. Windhoek, Namibia: Association for the Development of Education in Africa. Retrieved from: http://www.adeanet.org/clearinghouse/sites/ default/files/docs/ecd-wp-nam-en.pdf Ng’aslke, J. T. (2015). Take me to the (dry) river: Children’s play in Turkana pastoralist communities of Kenya. In J. L. Roopnarine, M. M. Patte, J. E. Johnson, & D. Kuschner (Eds.), International perspectives on children’s play (pp. 103–116). Maidenhead, England: Open University Press. Niess, M. L., & Gillow-Wiles, H. (2015). Handbook of research on teacher education in the digital age. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference. Nisbett, R. E., Peng, K., Choi, I., & Norenzayan, A. (2001). Culture and systems of thought: Holistic versus analytic cognition. Psychological Review, 108(2), 291–310. Nsamenang, B. (2005). The intersection of traditional African learning with school learning. In L. Swartz, C. de la Rey, & N. Duncan (Eds.), Psychology: An introduction (pp. 327–337). Cape Town, South Africa: Oxford University Press. Nsamenang, B. (2010). The culturalization of developmental trajectories: A perspective on African childhoods and adolescences. In L. A. Jensen (Ed.), Bridging cultural and developmental approaches to psychology: New synthesis in theory, research, and policy. Oxford Scholarship Online. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195383430.001.0001 Nsamenang, B. (2011). Toward a philosophy for Africa’s education. In B. Nsamenang & T. M. S. Tchombe (Eds.), Handbook of African educational theories and practices: A generative teacher education curriculum (pp. 57–66). Bamenda, Cameroon: Human Development Resource Centre. Ødegaard, E. (2013). Early childhood education in Norway and Sweden today: Education for democracy. In J. Georgeson & J. Payler (Eds.), International perspectives on early childhood education and care (pp. 76–102). Maidenhead, England: Open University Press. Olsen, B. S. (2016). Teaching for success: Developing your teacher identity in today’s classroom. New York, NY: Routledge. Ong, W. J. (2012). Orality and literacy: The technologizing of the word (30th anniversary ed.). London, England: Routledge. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2012). Starting strong III: A quality toolbox for early childhood education and care. Paris, France: Author.

177

CHAPTER 5 Pacini-Ketchabaw, V., & Taylor, A. (2015). (Eds.). Unsettling the colonial places and spaces of early childhood education. New York, NY: Routledge. Packer, M., & Goicoechea, J. (2000). Sociocultural and constructivist theories of learning: Ontology, not just epistemology. Educational Psychologist, 35(4), 227–241. Parker, I. (2001, May 28). Absolute PowerPoint: Can a software package edit our thoughts? The New Yorker. Retrieved from: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/05/28/absolute-powerpoint Penn, H. (2008). Working on the impossible: Early childhood policies in Namibia. Childhood, 15(3), 379–395. Pramling-Samuelsson, I. & Fleer, M. (2009). Commonalities and distinctions across cultures. In I. Pramling-Samuelsson & M. Fleer (Eds.), Play and learning in early childhood settings: International perspectives (pp. 173–190). New York, NY: Springer. President of the Republic of Colombia. (2013). Political, technical and management fundamentals: Early childhood comprehensive care strategy. Bogotá, Colombia: Imprenta Nacional. Ransom, J. (1997). Foucault’s discipline. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Readings, B. (1996). The university in ruins. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Report from the Select Committee on Education in England and Wales. (1835). British Parliamentary Papers, Vol. 7. Republic of Namibia. (2004b). Namibia vision 2030. Windhoek, Namibia: Office of the President. Republic of Namibia. (2012a). Namibia’s fourth national development plan, 2012/13 to 2016/17. Windhoek, Namibia: Office of the President, National Planning Commission. Retrieved from: http://www.gov.na/documents/10181/14226/NDP4_Main_Document.pdf/6a57bd4f-a1ff-4aa5-9bd1264e4a3e1e1a Republic of Namibia. (2014). Pre-primary teachers’ manual. Okahandja: Ministry of Education, National Institute for Educational Development. Riley, P. (2011). Attachment theory and the teacher-student relationship: A practical guide for teachers, teacher educators and school leaders. New York, NY: Routledge. Rogoff, B. (1990). Apprenticeship in thinking: Cognitive development in social context. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Rorrer, A., & Furr, S. (2009). Using film as a multicultural awareness tool in teacher education. Multicultural Perspectives, 11(3), 162–168. Rousseau, J. J. (1964). Jean Jacques Rousseau: His educational theories selected from Émile, Julie, and other writings (R. L. Archer, Ed). Woodbury, NY: Barron’s Educational Series. (Original work published 1762) Serpell, R. (1996). Cultural models of childhood in indigenous socialization and formal schooling in Zambia. In C. P. Hwang, M. E. Lamb, & I. E. Sigel (Eds.), Images of childhood (pp. 129–142). New York, NY: Psychology Press. Sidhu, R. (2006). Universities and globalization: To market, to market. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Singer, E. (1992). Child care and the psychology of development (A. Porcelijn, Trans.). New York, NY: Routledge. Singer, E. (1993). Shared care for children. Theory and Psychology, 3(4), 429–449. Slide, A. (1992). Before video: A history of the non-theatrical film. New York, NY: Greenwood. Souto-Manning, M., Cahmann-Taylor, M., Dice, J., & Wooten, J. (2008). The power and possibilities of performative critical early childhood teacher education. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 29, 309–325. doi: 10.1080/10901020802470093 Sriprakash, A. (2012). Pedagogies for development: The politics and practice of child-centered education in India. New York, NY: Springer. St. Clair, R. N., & Jia, Y. X. (2005). Cultural harmony versus cultural dissonance: Philosophical approaches to conflict resolution. Intercultural Communication Studies, 14(9), 1–17. Stearns, P. (2011). Childhood in world history (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. Steedman, C. (1985). “The mother made conscious”: The historical development of a primary school pedagogy. History Workshop Journal, 20(1), 149–163.

178

INTERSECTIONS Steinbock, A. J. (1995). Home and beyond: Generative phenomenology after Hüsserl. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. Stillerman, J. (2010). The contested spaces of Chile’s middle classes. In J. Go (Ed.), Political power and social theory (Vol. 21; pp. 209–240). Bingley, England: Emerald. Super, C. M., & Harkness, S. (1986). The developmental niche: A conceptualization at the interface of child and culture. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 9, 545–569. Turkle, S. (2004). The fellowship of the microchip: Global technologies as evocative objects. In M. M. Suarez-Orozco, & B. D. Qin-Hilliard (Eds.), Globalization culture and education in the new millennium (pp. 97–113). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. United Nations. (1989). United Nations convention on the rights of the child. Geneva: United Nations Human Rights, Office of the High Commissioner. Retrieved from: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CRC.aspx van Manen, M. (1991). The tact of teaching: The meaning of pedagogical thoughtfulness. London, ON: Althouse Press. Viruru, R. (2001). Early childhood education: Postcolonial perspectives from India. London, England: SAGE. Vorkapić, S. T., Vujicčić, L., & Čepić, R. (2014). Preschool teacher identity. In P. Breen (Ed.), Cases on teacher identity, diversity, and cognition in higher education (pp. 22–60). Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference. Vygotsky L. S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Vygotsky, L. S. (1987). The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky. Volume 1: Problems of general psychology. R. W. Rieber & A. S. Carton (Eds., N. Minick, Trans.). New York, NY: Plenum Press. Weber, S., & Mitchell, C. (1995). That’s funny, you don’t look like a teacher! Interrogating images and identity in popular culture. London, England: Falmer. Weidel, J. (1995). Being there: Using pictures to see the invisible. In M. Schratz & R. Walker (Eds.), Research as social change: New opportunities for qualitative research (pp. 72–90). New York, NY: Routledge. Weikart, D. (1972). Relationship of curriculum, teaching, and learning in preschool education. In J. C. Stanley (Ed.), Preschool programs for the disadvantaged: Five experimental approaches to early childhood education (pp. 22–66). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. Willekens, H., Scheiwe, K., & Nawrotzki, K. (2015). Introduction: The longue durée: Early childhood institutions and ideas in flux. In H. Willekens, K. Scheiwe, & K. Nawrotzki (Eds.), The development of early childhood education in Europe and North America (pp. 1–28). New York, NY: Springer. Woodrow, C. (2008). Discourses of professional identity in early childhood: Movements in Australia. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 16, 269–280. doi: 10.1080/13502930802141675

179

INDEX

Border crossings, 5, 95 Bowlby, John, attachment theory, 52, 169 Bradshaw, Jonathan, typology of social needs, 142 Bridging programs for newcomers to Canada, 38 Bronfenbrenner, Urie, ecological theory, 29, 141

A Accessibility of early childhood education, 11, 25, 69, 71, 73, 74 Accompaniment, 111, 112, 118 Accreditation of early childhood centres, 72 Accreditation standards, impact on practice, 46 Action research, 38, 39 Adult-child relations, 17, 48–51, 54, 56, 159, 166 Adult-to-be, 3 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, 68, 75 “Ages of man” see Ages and stages view of the child Ages and stages view of the child, 1, 2, 30, 136, 143–145 Apartheid, 66, 75, 91 Apprenticeship, 29, 166 Armed conflict, in Colombia, 104 Assimilative approach to training child care workers, 1, 89 Attachment theory, 29, 52, 112, 168, 169 Authority, as one of three primary curricular areas, Colombia, 116, 122–125, 148, 149 Authoritative discourse, 43, 47, 48, 58, 59, 148, 152, 164, 166, 171, 173

C Casa del taita Payán (educational centre), 115, 116, 128, 129, 148, 149 Change agents, teacher educators as, 12 Child care, “civilized” vs. “uncivilized”, 155 Child-centred pedagogy, 1–4, 73, 75, 78, 87, 90, 94, 95, 125, 137 Child development ages-and-stages approach to, 1, 30, 143–145 in relationship with kin networks, 145 theories, 4, 13, 14, 29, 47, 58, 108, 147, 148, 155 Child poverty, reduction of, in Namibia, 73 Childhood and Adolescence Code, Colombia, 108 Childhood historical visions of, 143–145 modern model, 142, 143, 145 nature of, 11 Children’s rights discourse, 106, 108 Christianity, influence of, on education in Namibia, 76 Code switching, 91, 93 Cogeneration, 18 Cognitive competence, 137

B Babies, documentary on child development by Thomas Balmés, 44, 85, 154–158 “Baby culture”, consumer-based, 155 Barcelona Agreement, 11 Best practices, 2, 4, 9, 28, 30, 31, 107, 112, 113, 137 181

INDEX

Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF), 106–108, 110 Colonialism, 14, 66, 94, 145 Colonization Canada, 26, 27 Colombia, 104 education, as a tool of, 143 Namibia, 66, 67, 91 residual effects of, 17 Community mothers, Colombia, 106, 117 Compensatory early education, 145 Constitution of Colombia of 1991, 104, 106, 108, 110 Constitution of the Republic of Namibia, 68, 69, 73 Constructivism see social constructivism Consumer-based “baby culture”, 155 Critical pedagogy theory, 36, 37, 57, 58 Critical reflection, 7, 87 Cultural dissonance, 7, 44, 54, 121, 128, 132, 136, 137, 151 Cultural identity, 6, 129, 145 Cultural intelligence, 7 Cultural lag, 4 Cultural revitalization, 16, 141, 142, 147, 148 Cultural tension, 7, 8, 40, 138 Cultural tools, 129, 132, 135, 136 Culture, 4–6, 36, 58, 113, 133, 143 Culture change, 4 “Culture of silence”, 57 D Dakar Framework for Action, 11 DAP see Developmentally appropriate practice Documentation, of children, 29 Decade of Development, 11 Declaration of the Rights of the Child, 11 Development assessment tools, 29

182

Developmental milestones, 30, 43, 154–156 Developmental psychology, 6, 106, 147, 171 as “normal science”, 147 Developmentally appropriate practice, 1, 2, 4, 17, 29, 30, 36, 46, 50, 51, 55, 68, 86, 94, 132, 137, 144, 147, 152, 156, 159, 166 Dewey, John, vision of childhood, 144 Disciplinary power, 171, 172 Discipline, pressure from parents and school inspectors to, in Namibia, 88 Dispositif (Foucault), 153, 154, 158, 159, 171 Differentiation, of education on basis of culture, 77 Disability, 74, 80 Diversity, 14, 25, 33–37, 71, 74, 80, 81, 97, 109, 113, 114, 123, 133, 141, 146, 164 cultural and linguistic diversity of Colombian population, 103, 104 ethnocultural diversity of Canadian population, 27 E Early Childhood Comprehensive Care Strategy, Colombia, 106– 114, 117, 119, 123, 124, 136, 137, 142, 162 Early childhood development centres, Namibia, 67–70, 72, 73, 79, 80–82 Early childhood education, 10–12 accessibility of, 11, 25, 69, 71, 73, 74 community control of, Colombia, 138, Namibia, 69, 79 culturally adapted models of, 146

INDEX

discourse of investments in for long-term benefits to national development, 71, 72, 147 dominant discourses of, 1, 4, 6, 9, 17, 18, 25, 38, 39, 43, 44, 46, 48, 50, 56, 58–60, 65, 68, 72, 76, 85, 89, 96, 103, 106, 117, 124, 132–135, 138, 146–149, 158, 164, 166, 172, 173 legislation, in Canada, 28–30, 33, 34, in Colombia, 108, in Namibia, 73 reconceptualized approach to, 36 regulatory frameworks and impact on practice, 46 school readiness vs. play-based learning as two conflicting global models of, 145 state-level purposes for, 146 Early childhood education curriculum frameworks Africa, 145 Australia, 146 Canada, 28–36 Early childhood educators assimilative approach to training of, 1 certification requirements of, in Canada, 34 immigrant and refugee, in Canada, 1, 3, 4, 14, 37, 38, 43, 48, 50–54, 59, 60, 159, 165 parallel system for training of, in Namibia, 72 professionalization of, 82, 88, 147, 168 Ecological theory, 29, 141 Education Act, Namibia, 68–70, 74, 78, 79 Education and Training Sector Improvement Programme, Namibia, 69–71 Education for All, 11, 68, 69, 75 Education framework, Namibia’s, 68–70

Education policy, contradictions with practice in Namibia, 97 Educational reforms Canada, 25 Namibia, 87 Elders First Nations, Canada, 33 Misak children as elders, 123 Taitas and Mamas, Colombia, 115–118, 120, 128, 129, 132, 133, 142, 148, 149, 170 Emancipatory pedagogy, 36 Emic/etic approaches to culture, 39 Encountering the Other, 17, 18, 163 English for all, in Namibia, 81 as language of social mobility, 81 Equal access to learning, 74 Equal participation, 25 Equality of children and adults, Colombia, 123 Erikson, Erik, social-emotional stages theory, 144 Ethno-mathematics, 89 F Families as experts, 32 as full participants in educational processes, 111 as primary agents of children’s socialization, 110, 111 as rights holders, 111 Feuerstein, Reuven, sociocultural theory of mediated learning, 56, 57 Film as instructional tool, 150, 153– 158 as valuable substitute for child observation, 154 First Nations authorities, references to in early childhood care legislation in Canada, 33 183

INDEX

as percentage of Canadian population, 27 Foreign aid to Namibia, 67, 80 withdrawal of, effects of on early education of marginalized children, 67 Freire, Paulo, critical pedagogy, 36, 57 Froebel, Friederich, 13, 55, 106, 143, 145, 148, 168–169 educational theory of, 13 theory of the natural child, 145

Herbart, J. F., child and species view, 143 HighScope approach to early childhood education, 9, 145 HIV/AIDS, children orphaned by in Namibia, 67 Holistic view of the child, 73, 75, 76, 78 Home–program/school relations, 32– 34, 76, 79 training and accompaniment as approaches to working with families in Colombia, 111

G Gatekeepers, 120 GEIM (Grupo de Estudios en Educación Indígena y Multicultural), 115–117, 120, 144, 148 Gender identity, western formulations of, 53 Gender roles, 51–53 Gender socialization, 53, 96, 97 Gender stereotypes, 53 Global north/south, 25, 55, 65, 103 Globalization, 8–10, 16, 25, 71, 82, 135, 138, 141, 146, 147, 158, 159, 171 as a dispositif, 158 ontologizing effect of, 159 as a process of developing multiplicities of discourses and practices, 16 as a way of knowing, 158 Grupo de Estudios en Educación Indígena y Multicultural see GEIM

I ICBF see Colombian Family Welfare Institute Identity development, professional, of educators, 163, 164, 166 “Ideological becoming” (Bakhtin), 163 Image(s) of the child, 10, 30, 53, 54, 108, 109, 121–123 Froebel’s natural child as out of step with indigenous understandings, 144 indigenous understanding of the child, 144 Image(s) of the educator, 10, 12, 35, 76 Immigrants and refugees, in Canada as early childhood educators, 1, 3, 4, 14, 37, 38, 43, 48, 50–54, 59, 60, 159, 165 lack of mention of in licensing regulations, 33 percentage of population, 27 Immigration policy, Canada, 27 Inclusion, 33, 34, 73, 74, 80, 93, 114 of disability at the expense of cultural and linguistic diversity, 74 of indigenous knowledge in ECTE programs, 14

H Hall, G. Stanley, child and species view, 143 Heidegger, Martin, House of Being, 159, 160

184

INDEX

in initial education programs in Colombia, 106 of local knowledge in curriculum frameworks, 33 Independence indigenous resistance to independence movements in Colombia, 104 Namibia, 66, 67 Indigenous conception of child development, 96 Indigenous knowledge(s), 6, 7, 9, 14, 18, 33, 34, 90, 91, 96, 97, 103, 109, 110, 119, 138, 158 confirmation of in policy and legislation in Colombia, 136 Indigenous revitalization, 144 Informal ECD in Namibia, importance to life and prosperity, 68 Initial education programs, Colombia, 106 vs. preschool education programs, 106, 112, 117 Insider/outsider positions, 16–18, 39, 154 “spaces between”, 18 Intercultural competence, 33 Intercultural education, 25, 36 Intervention(s), 10–12 J Junior primary phase of pre-primary education in Namibia, 67, 68, 70, 72, 81 mother-tongue policy, 81, 83, 86, 88, 90, 92, 93, 95 training of junior primary teachers, 82–87, 92, 93, 95, 98 K Knowledge collision of previous beliefs with new professional knowledge, 85

cultural and professional, tensions between, 38, 47, 48, 51, 52 funds of, 43, 46, 47, 117 Knowledge keepers, First Nations Elders as, 33 L Language of instruction policy, Namibia’s, 81, 83, 95, 97, 98 coherence with practice, 95 Learner-centred pedagogy, 4, 13, 38, 73, 75, 79, 80, 83, 86–90, 92–95, 97–98, 141 Learning, constructivist views of, 29–31, 78, 124 Learning styles, 40, 48, 76, 77 Linguistic revitalization, 16, 136, 137, 158 Local ways of knowing see Indigenous knowledge(s) Locke, John, environmental view of the child, 143, 145 M Maternal teacher ideal, 12, 168 Men, role of, in caring for children in Colombia, 117, 170 Mentors, 94, 166 for immigrant/refugee educators in Canada, 39 Minimum requirements for early childhood teachers Canada, 34, 35 Namibia, 68 Minority/majority world, 6, 8, 25, 69, 71, 97, 143, 147, 173 Misak Educational Project, Colombia, 115, 118 Misak worldview, 117, 121–126, 129, 130, 132, 137, 138, 144, 148, 149 Montessori approach to early childhood education, 9, 13, 55, 148 Mother-tongue policy, 81, 88 185

INDEX

Motherhood, construction of, 52 Mothering and teaching, as having different aims, 167–169 Multiculturalism, 25, 58, 97 Multiculturalism Act of Canada, 27 Multicultural education, 25, 34, 36 N Namibia Fourth National Development Plan, 70–72 Namibia National Agenda for Children, 73, 80 Namibia National Professional Standards for Teachers, 82, 84 Namibia Vision 2030, 69–71, 81, 97, 147 Namibian Standards for Early Childhood Development Centres, 69, 72, 73 Neoliberalism, 141, 147 Normalization, 8, 164 O Observation, of children, 13, 29, 31, 35, 49, 53, 109, 113, 128, 147, 154, 161, 167, 169 Orphans and vulnerable children, 11 Colombia, 106, 111 Namibia, 67, 68, 73 policy on, 68, 69 Outcomes-based education, 4 Overcrowding of classrooms in Namibia, 88 P Parents, 46, 48, 49, 81, 88, 117–119, 136, 170 as educators, 11 intersecting roles of parents and teachers, 170 parenting and teaching as having different aims, 167–169 role of in early education, 36, 69, 79

186

traditional African understandings of, 69, 70 Participation children’s, in community life, Colombia, 112, 123, 124, 128, 130–133, 136 guided, 129–132, 137 Participatory action research, 38, 39 cyclic nature of, 40 Pedagogical model of child socialization, 2–4, 43, 113, 137 Pedagogical tools, 132–136, 148, 149, 172 Pediatric model of child socialization, 2–4, 96, 119, 136, 137, 142–144 Personalities, of children, 76 Piaget, Jean, cognitive stages theory, 144 Play, 13, 31, 55–57, 96, 112, 113, 123, 170 Misak conceptualization of, 124– 128, 138, 162, 165, 167 pragmatic, 128 socio-dramatic (Vygotsky), 127 Play-based pedagogy, 1–4, 55–57, 68, 76, 78–80, 86, 145–147, 158, 159, 164–166, 173 Policy borrowing, 1, 3, 9, 74 Power culture of, 134, 136 disciplinary, 171, 172 dynamics, in classroom, 49, 50, 154, 164 hidden effects of, in multicultural society, 58 relationship with knowledge, 58 PowerPoint as enhancing western authoritative ways of being, 47, 48, 59, 149, 150 as medium of instruction, 150– 153 Precolonial social structures Canada, 26, 27

INDEX

Namibia, 65, 66 Pre-primary Syllabus, Namibia, 75– 77 Pre-primary Teachers’ Manual, Namibia, 74–80, 169 Pre-primary year, Namibia, 67–70, 76, 82 Professionalization movement in early childhood education, 168 Q Qualitative research methods, 39, 40, 85 Quality, of early childhood environments, 9, 12, 29, 36, 47, 67, 68, 70–72, 74, 75, 79, 82, 147, 163 R Reading culture, 91, 92 Reconceptualist movement in early childhood, 36 Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education, 9, 53 curriculum frameworks inspired by, 30, 35 Regulatory frameworks, impact of on practice, 46 Respect-obedience model of child care, 3, 164 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 143, 169 Rural-to-urban migration, 2, 3 S School preparedness/readiness, 31, 32, 76 “Schoolification”, 32 Skinner, B. F., conditioned child view, 144 Social change, 3, 4 Social competence, 137 Social constructivism, 29, 31, 78, 124, 136 Social needs, 142

Socialization of children, 2–6, 8–12, 32, 40, 43, 53, 56, 96, 97, 106, 107, 110, 111, 113, 114, 121–123, 136, 137, 141, 144, 146, 157, 166, 167, 171, 172 Sociocultural theory of learning, 29, 56, 57, 112, 129 Sociology of childhood, 53 Spirituality having dreams related to, as prerequisite to becoming an elder in Misak culture, 116 as one of three primary curricular areas, Colombia, 116, 122– 125, 129, 148, 149 Storytelling, 2, 42, 128, 129, 137 as pedagogical approach in Colombia, 128, 129 Sustainability, of preschools, 147 T Teacher-child relationships, 12 Teacher education as adult education, 12 Teachers’ resistance to new methods, 96 responsibility in regard to child’s home-based experiences in Namibia, 76 role as experts in teaching families in Colombia, 111 Teaching traditional, 94 Technology, as means of conveying western knowledge, 47, 48, 59, 149, 150 Territory, as one of three primary curricular areas, Colombia, 116, 121–125, 132–134, 148, 149, 170 Theory/practice divide, 87, 96 U UNESCO-China Funds in Trust, 79, 80, 98

187

INDEX

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 30, 53, 68, 75, 106, 108, 144, 145, 147, 158, 171 United Nations Human Development Index, 15 V Visual learning, 148 Vygotsky, Lev sociocultural theory, 29, 112, 127

188

zone of proximal development, 129 W Watson, John, conditioned child view, 144 World Bank, 67, 71, 142 Z Zone of proximal development (Vygotsky), 127, 129, 133