• Publishing Information
• Preface
• Field 1 - Development of schools and professionalism
• Supporting New Teachers at the Beginning of their Professional Careers: A Collegial Mentoring Project in Styria, Austria
• Using Social Software on Erasmus Exchange: A Qualitative Study of How Erasmus Outgoing Students from the University College of Teacher Education are using Social Software during their Erasmus Student Exchanges
• Happiness Makes School
• Field 2 - Early childhood
• An Analysis of Preschool Children’s Perspectives on their Relationships with Adults
• Field 3 - Language
• Support of Plurilingualism of Students in Narva College of the University of Tartu, Estonia by Implementing CLIL and Trilingual Educational Model
• Learning Space Deutschlandsberg – Creating Language Friendly Learning Environments
• MALEDIVE - Diversity in Majority Language Learning - Supporting Teacher Education
• Field 4 - Diversity
• When Perception is Upside Down
• Field 5 - Natural Science and Health
• Inquiry-based Learning and Teaching for the Development of Students’ Competences in Science
• Living with Type 1 Diabetes
• Appendix
• Editors

An Analysis of Preschool Children’s Perspectives on their Relationships with Adults

Angela Gastager, Bärbel Hausberger

This study’s main interest is the following question: Is the relationship between young children and adults one of respect and appreciation? The focus is on three aspects:

• Young children’s competence as partners in research generally and their ability to report on matters that affect them. This study sought to pursue research conversations with children about their lived experiences in order to develop a richer understanding of children and childhood.
• Identifying ways in which children express their own experiences of daily communications with related persons. Children form their views and theories and give a clear indication of what constitutes good quality in this domain.
• Attitudes and opinions of preschool children are reconstructed, and analyzed along the lines stated in Article 12 of the U. N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (see http://www.hrweb.org/legal/child.html):

1. States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child. 2. For this purpose, the child shall in particular be provided the opportunity to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings affecting the child, either directly, or through a representative or an appropriate body, in a manner consistent with the procedural rules of national law.

The study involved 26 young children in 2 preschool classes in Styria - 12 children in one class and 14 in the other. A preliminary warming-up phase allowed the participants to get familiar with one another. For the primary investigation, the so-called mosaic approach (Harcourt 2011) was used, which consists of whole group discussions, small group discussions, and finally individual or paired interactions. Children’s drawings and conversations were used to consider and record children’s views on and opinions of the quality of their own experiences, especially with the adults in their families and adults they meet in everyday life, such as streetcar drivers, dentists, pharmacists, waiters, etc. In particular, the children focus on their relationships within their own family, such as with their mother, father, grandparents, and siblings. The results show that children’s ways of expressing their inner world and the corresponding articulation of their ideas vary extremely. For some of them, expressing and explaining their experiences is a great challenge. The children’s class teacher (who is well-known to them) was very helpful in leading discussions and conversations with the children on the various topics, such as doing sports together, having celebrations at Christmas, and verbalizing the impressions that adult strangers leave in children’s everyday lives. Two female preschool teachers were also involved in the research process. The subjective theories according to Gastager, Patry, and Gollackner (2011) were reconstructed in the dialogue-consensus-technique using the matrix analyzing technique developed in Salzburg by Patry and Gastager (2002) with a strong focus on innovative methodology. Results show that - according to one teacher - enhancing and blocking correlations between the main concepts of the cognition networks in the subjective theories are balanced, while - according to the other teacher - the correlations seem to be considerably unbalanced. However, the two teachers agree that the correlations within the concepts, enhancing and blocking appreciation and respect in the conversation between young children and adults, are very strong and very clear. Here are a few examples of important concepts that promise successful interaction for the persons concerned with this study: (1) a positive view of and attitude to children and to work in general; (2) a readiness to take one’s time for a conversation; (3) children’s self-confidence; (4) the teacher’s condition and mood of the day; (5) politeness of interaction and manners. All in all, it may be concluded that respect and appreciation in the culture of interaction between young children and adults vary greatly and depends on the individuality of the child and the influences of situational conditions. 

References

Gastager, A. (2013). Subjektive Theorien von Lehrerinnen und Lehrern zum Umgang mit Vielfalt im Unterricht. Erziehung und Unterricht, 1-2, S. 108 - 117.

Gastager, A., Patry, J.-L., & Gollackner, K. (2011). Subjektive Theorien über das eigene Tun in sozialen Handlungsfeldern. Innsbruck: Studienverlag.

Harcourt, D. (2009). Standpoints on quality: Young children as competent research participants. Australian research Alliance for Children & Youth: NSW.

Harcourt, D. (2011). An encounter with children: Seeking meaning and understanding about childhood. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, Volume 19, Issue 3, pages 331-343.

Contact

angela.gastager@phst.at; baerbel.hausberger@phst.at