Children Crossing Borders: Emerging Findings from England

1
Children Crossing Borders Emerging
Findings from England

• A presentation by
• Professor Christine Pascal
• Centre for Research in Early Childhood Birmingham

2
Presentation in three parts

• Project aims
• Project method
• Emerging findings from England

3
Project aims

• To give voice to hopes, beliefs and concerns of
  immigrant parents and children about their
  experiences and wishes about the education and
  care of young children
• To identify and explicate models in 5 countries
  of working in nursery settings with children of
  immigrants to share experiences and approaches

4
Project aims

• To influence policy and practice and improve the
  quality of ECEC practice and policy towards these
  young children
• To model for parents and staff a process of
  engaging in dialogue with children, parents and
  practitioners about provision for young children

5
Project aims

• To strengthen understandings between parents and
  practitioners and build greater articulation
  between home and school
• To help young children and their parents
  negotiate the differences in the contexts of home
  and school
• To produce a range of professional development
  materials to enhance inclusion in ECEC settings.

6
The Anthropological Method

• Anthropology is the study of humans, including
  their customs, cultures, societies and beliefs
• Project builds on the work of Joseph Tobins
  Preschool in Three Cultures
• Working with Tobin we have adopted his seminal
  method of using video film to stimulate
  reflection and record multi-vocal discussion

7
Methodology

• Project methodology is mirrored in 5 countries
  England, France, Germany, Italy, US
• Begins with the filming and production of a 20
  minute video of a day in the life of a nursery in
  each country which is used to provoke dialogues

8
Creating Symmetrical Dialogues

• We are exploring various strategies to stimulate
  the parents voices
• Video and other cultural artefacts are being used
  in Focus Groups (OR Cultural Circles Freire) of
  parents and practitioners to act as an impulse to
  dialogue
• The aim is to stimulate a multi-vocal and
  symmetrical conversation about the parents
  aspirations, experiences and lived realities.

9
Emerging Findings from England Methodological
Lessons

• The recent UNICEF Report (Bradshaw, 2007) on the
  well being of children in developed countries and
  the poor showing of English childrens well
  being, has highlighted the relevance of capturing
  childrens voices. We have found
• the videos are a useful prompt for childrens
  dialogue
• children are well aware of their conditions of
  life in the wider world as well as their
  pre-school
• we have to explore further methodological
  techniques to ensure all children can express
  themselves fully in the dialogues
• we have to take great care with the power
  relationships in the researcher/subject dyad to
  ensure the ethics of the method

10
Emerging Findings from England Methodological
Lessons (contd)

• We have to trouble further the issue of
  childrens rights to voice and responsiveness in
  the project
• building a trusting relationship with children to
  ensure open dialogue takes time and resource
• we have effectively used a variety of narrative
  techniques with children that can be adapted with
  some more work for use in professional practice
  eg narrative boxes with objects, video
  reconstructions, drawings, photographs, listening
  posts, whispering groups, dramatic play,
  persona dolls, child guided tours of the
  pre-school
• researcher techniques need to be further
  developed eg use of eye contact, interpersonal
  cues, active listening, pacing, timing, venues,
  multiple languages of children, metacognitive
  opportunities.

11
Emerging Findings from England Professional
Lessons

• Early collation and coding of the data has
  allowed us to begin to map some emerging
  professional concerns and findings that we can
  begin to mainstream into policy and practice. We
  have learned that
• Nearly all newly parents want their children to
  be bilingual and want some bilingual support for
  their children, but they overwhelmingly want the
  emphasis to be on learning English.
•  All newly arrived parents want someone at their
  pre-school to speak their language so that they
  can communicate more easily with them.

12
Emerging Findings from England Professional
Lessons (contd)

• Most newly arrived parents are confident that
  they can sustain their childrens mother tongue
  within their home.
• Many newly arrived parents want a more structured
  and academically focused curriculum.
• Pre-schools often are willing to adjust their
  programmes to include cultural learning through
  celebrations, dress, food but do not tackle the
  deeper cultural and power differences.
• Having members of staff from the local community
  is helpful but these staff are in a difficult
  situation and often marginalized from the
  pre-school and community groups through their
  mediating role.

13
Emerging Findings from England Political Lessons

• The project data reflects a far wider sweep of
  experience than early childhood pre-school
  pedagogy and practice. The voices of these
  previously silenced parents and children are
  providing us with a fresh perspective on practice
  in the pre-schooling system. They are provoking
  change in a way that insiders often cant do as
  their voices challenge us to think, reform and
  change in a way that we had not expected. We have
  learned that
• Newly arrived parents experience pervasive
  racism and often poverty and express this
  strongly in dialogues which are attempting to
  focus on early childhood practice. They lack
  forums to express their lived experiences and say
  no-one listens or they feel silenced.

14
Emerging Findings from England Political Lessons
(contd.)

• There is a lot of ignorance and stereotyping of
  newly arrived families in the host
  community.Newly arrived parents dont necessarily
  get much help from others in their community.
• There is a strong demand for more open dialogues
  from parents and practitioners in all
  communities.
• There is a clear awareness of the inequity in the
  relationships between parents, practitioners and
  children and a desire to challenge this through
  more dialogue and training.

15
Opportunities of the dialogic approach

• Access to fine grain, close up, real world
  information about parents and childrens lives
• Visual image and other cultural artefacts can
  stimulate deeper dialogues
• Reflexive, symmetrical dialogues lead to deep
  level learning experiences for all participants
• Enhanced knowledge through cross cultural
  collaboration and sharing of perspectives
• High stakes more cohesive, inclusive societies