1 an Exploration of English and Swedish Pre-School Teachers
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An Exploration of English and Swedish Pre-School Teachers’ Perspectives on Their Roles and Values Faye Stanley BA, PGCE Primary, MA, SFHEA A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. July 2020 This work or any part thereof has not previously been presented in any form to the University or to any other body whether for the purposes of assessment, publication or for any other purpose (unless otherwise indicated). Save for any express acknowledgements, references and/or bibliographies cited in the work, I confirm that the intellectual content of the work is the result of my own efforts and of no other person. The right of Faye Stanley to be identified as author of this work is asserted in accordance with ss.77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. At this date copyright is owned by the author. Signature Date………20/07/2020…………………………………….. 1 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my ‘A’ team of supervisors, Doctor Brendan Bartram, Professor Tony Bertram and Doctor Martin Needham for all their help, support and guidance. I am also very grateful to ‘The Centre for Research in Early Childhood’ (CREC) and all the staff there for always making me so welcome and giving me a PhD ‘home’. I would not have enjoyed this journey so much without my PhD partner in crime, Helen Lyndon, and also Jenny Worsley who has been selfless with her time to guide me through the final stages. I would like to thank my colleagues at the University of Wolverhampton, my friends and family for always asking me how I am getting on. Finally, I would like to thank my husband Scott and our three boys for keeping me on my toes and ensuring I am a master at multi-tasking while completing my thesis. I love you all dearly. 2 Abstract This comparative investigation aims to explore the values of an English and a Swedish pre-school teacher, focusing on their roles and the experiences they provide for three and four-year-old children. Values are beliefs held by individuals to which they attach special worth or priority (Hill, 1991); and this research recognises that values are personalised and shaped by the social, cultural and political contexts in which the teachers are situated and as a prism through which practice is realised. This thesis examines growing international research evidence in the field of early childhood education (ECE) that has shown that high quality early childhood education is linked to teacher qualification and pedagogic approach, which has a significant impact on children’s learning outcomes (Sylva et al., 2010). The literature examined affirms that early years practitioners’ underlying beliefs and the transmission of values must be scrutinised through critical reflection and made ‘explicit’ and brought to the surface to transform early years practitioners’ practice (Brookfield, 2017). Two ‘day in the life of’ videos were filmed (in a Swedish and an English pre-school) using polyvocal ethnography (Tobin and Hayashi, 2012) to capture two teachers’ multiple ‘voices’ in an attempt to ascertain their values through ongoing dialogue, telling and retelling of their ‘stories’ provoked by their reflections on the video footage. The videos provided data which were used to elicit thick, rich reflections. The findings revealed many similarities in the teachers’ values, especially regarding relationships, a play- based pedagogy, valuing parents as partners, the layout of the environment and types of resources utilised, valuing the voice and rights of the child alongside the role of the adult in terms of nurturing children’s independence, 3 knowing the children, and modelling. There were more pronounced differences, however, with regard to the teachers’ views on how children learn and the role of the adult. It is concluded that these differences are shaped by the underpinning educational policy and the curricula in the teachers’ respective countries. This investigation has generated a framework entitled ‘situated pedagogy’, based on the thinking of Habermas (1987) and Rogoff (2003), which offers early years practitioners the opportunity to make their values more visible through the lens of their daily pedagogical practices, taking into consideration the societal, political and cultural contexts in which they are based. 4 Contents Table of Contents Page Acknowledgements ..................................................................................... 2 Abstract ........................................................................................................ 3 Contents ....................................................................................................... 5 Chapter One – Introduction......................................................................... 9 1.1 Introduction to the Research ................................................................ 9 1.2 Context of Research ............................................................................. 9 1.3 The English and Swedish ECE Context ............................................. 12 1.4 Scope and Aims of the Research ....................................................... 17 1.5 Rationale for the Research Questions ................................................ 22 1.6 Organisation of the Thesis .................................................................. 26 Chapter Two – Literature Review – Values .............................................. 28 2.1 An Introduction to the Literature Review............................................. 28 2.2 Introduction to the Chapter ................................................................. 34 2.3 Teachers’ Values ................................................................................ 34 2.4 Conclusion to the Chapter .................................................................. 49 Chapter Three – Literature Review – Social, Political and Cultural Contexts ..................................................................................................... 50 3.1 Introduction to the Chapter ................................................................. 50 3.2 Social, Political and Cultural Contexts in England and Sweden ......... 50 3.3 Contemporary Perspectives ............................................................... 62 3.4 How Children Learn ............................................................................ 69 3.5 The Rights of the Child ....................................................................... 79 3.6 Relationships ...................................................................................... 87 3.7 Learning Environment ........................................................................ 93 3.8 The Outdoor Environment ................................................................ 102 3.9 Conclusion to the Chapter ................................................................ 108 Chapter Four– Literature Review – Pedagogical Approaches in Early Years ......................................................................................................... 109 4.1 Introduction to the Chapter ............................................................... 109 4.2 The Meaning of Pedagogy ............................................................... 109 4.3 Pedagogical Approaches to the Curriculum ..................................... 115 4.4 The Role of the Adult ........................................................................ 125 4.5 Conclusion to the Chapter ................................................................ 132 4.6 Conclusion to the Literature Review ................................................. 133 5 Chapter Five – Methodology ................................................................... 135 5.1 Introduction to the Chapter ............................................................... 135 5.2 Context of the Research ................................................................... 135 5.2.1 The English Pre-School Context ................................................ 136 5.2.2 The Swedish Pre-School Context .............................................. 139 5.3 Positionality ...................................................................................... 142 5.4 Interpretivist Approach...................................................................... 146 5.5 Case Study ....................................................................................... 150 5.6 Socio-Cultural Methodological Approaches ...................................... 152 5.7 Praxeology ....................................................................................... 156 5.8 Ethnography ..................................................................................... 157 5.9 Comparative Education .................................................................... 159 5.10 Data Collection ............................................................................... 164 5.11 Polyvocal Ethnography ................................................................... 165 5.12 The Benefits and Challenges of Videoing as a Data Collection Tool ............................................................................................................... 170 5.13 Observation .................................................................................... 175 5.14 Interviewing .................................................................................... 178 5.15 Sampling .......................................................................................