PowerPointprsentation

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Stig Broström School of EducationAarhus
UniversityTransition to school - Liberation or
adjustment18th EECERA Annual Conference
2008Stavanger, Norway 3th 6th September 2008
Reconsidering the Basics in Early Childhood
EducationKey Note Saturday 6th September
2008
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Defining transition

• Transition can be seen as being the passage
  from one place, stage, state, style or subject to
  another over time
• Aline-Wendy Hilary Fabian, 2004
• The time between the first visit in the new
  educational context and the final setting in, and
  here the children experience a change of teachers
  and also a change of the group of children, and
  with that a change in relation to well-known
  peers and friends
• Inspired of Fabian, 2004 Kagan and Neuman, 1998
  Niesel Griebel 2007

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Forms of transitions

• Vertical transition
• From secure attachment in family to créche or
  preschool
• Thyssen 2000 Kiening 2002, Dali 2002 Clark
  2007 Griebel Niesel 2002
• From one age group to another
• From preschool to school
• Dockett Perry 2007 Griebel Niesel 1999
  Johansson 2002 Peters 2002 Dunlop 2002
  Margetts 2002, 2007 Broström 2002, 2003, 2007
  Corsaro Molinari 2008 J. Einarsdóttir, 2006,
  2003, 2002
• From preschool to leisure-time centre/after
  school
• Horizontal transition
• The daily transition
• Dencik et al. 1989
• Transition from home to leisure-time centre/after
  and to school and back again
• Johansson 2003, 2007

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Problems in transition

• International research suggests that moving from
  preschool to school can be challenging, if not
  traumatic, for some children
• Especially children with les-than-optimal-circumst
  ances may be at even higher risk during this
  transition
• Broström 2002 Shore 1998 Wagner, 2003 Napier,
  2002

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Problems in transition

• When children enter school they meet a larger,
  physical environment
• In preschool the children belong to the eldest
  group and in school they are forced to relate to
  older children
• In school the social environment is much more
  complex
• In school there are fewer adults
• In school children have less autonomy
• There is a shift in the academic demands of
  children
• In sum the demands go up and the support goes
  down
• Fabian 2002, 2007 Merry 2007 Pienta, 2004

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Discontinuities between preschool and schools

• Physical discontinuities
• Fabian 2002
• Social discontinuities
• Broström 2003 Fabian 2002
• Philosophical discontinuities
• Broström 1999, 2001 Fabian 2002
• Communication discontinuity
• Broström et al 2000
• Discontinuity in childrens view on preschool and
  school
• Einarsdóttir 2003 Broström 2003 Lillemyr 2001

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Childrens view on school

• 5 of the children characterise school as an
  authoritarian place, where the teacher commands
  the children.
• A 6.5 years old boy to the question What do you
  think, you will learn in school?
• Draw correctly, do homework correctly, play
  correctly, play outside in a good matter, eat
  correctly, learn to play with plaything
  correctly. You will be scold, if you do not play
  correctly. If people do not like to play with me,
  you have to play with yourself. The teacher will
  smack
• Broström 2003

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Well adjust to school

• Research on school start shows, that children
  who feel relaxed and well adjusted in school are
  much more likely, than children who do not feel
  well adjusted, to experience school success
  beyond preschool
• Thompsen 1975 Ladd Priece 1987.
• Corresponding academic, social and emotional
  difficulties in school start persist into later
  life
• Belsky MacKinnon 1994 Cowan et al. 1994
  Dunlop 2000 Taylor 1998.

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Elements in transition

• Successful transition from preschool to school
  requires attention to several related elements
• The extend of the childs school readiness
• Support from parents, family and community
• A system of high quality preschools
• A teacher who is able to take the childs
  perspective
• Continuity in curricula
• Communication between home and school
• A welcoming environment for family and children
• Broström 2002

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Ecological transition model

• Pianta Walsh 1996 Fabian Dunlop 2000
  (Inspired of Bronfenbrenner)

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Transition strategies/activities

• Griebel Niesel 2007
• Pedagogical and programme continuity, curricula
  development
• Administration continuity
• Personal or professional interaction
• - School groups in preschool
• - The school invites the parents
• - Lots of mutual visits during the year
• - A joint document defining school readiness
• - Meetings with parents about school readiness
• - Conferences on childrens readiness
• - Children and preschool teachers are involved
  in lessons in school
• - During spring the neighbourhood preschools
  have shared projects
• - A teacher from preschool follows the group of
  children in school
• - Formation of classes are done as regard to
  childrens friendship
• - Teaching in school on the basic of childrens
  portfolios
• Broström 2007

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Transition strategies/activities

• Neumann 2002
• Structural continuity
• - ECEC and school under same administrative
  auspice
• Continuity with families and homes
• - Parents are invited to meeting before school
  start
• - Parents and children gets letters during the
  summer
• - Parents and children collect artefacts to the
  childs portfolio
• Johanna Einarsdóttir, 2007

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Building bridges a critical reflection

• Too much support can result in helplessness
• Trust in childrens agency
• James, Jenks Proud 1998

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Economical and political demands

• National policy
• The aim is to create coherence and continuity
  between different forms of care and education and
  secure continuity in transition and must
  contribute to a harmonious transition to school
  and leisure-time centre
• Denmark, Ministry of Welfare, 2007
• European policy
• - The Treaty of Lisbon, EU, 2000
• - The two Starting Strong reports, OECD, 2001,
  2006
• International policy
• - Strong Foundations, UNESCO, 2007 recommends
  to integrate ECEC more closely with primary
  school.

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Economical and political demands

• EDUCATIONAL CHANGES
• A movement towards following tendencies
• An increasing use of standards and manuals
• A use of narrow intermediate aims and indicatives
  in order to measure childrens return
• A variation of evaluation batteries and test
  methods
• Implementation of quality reports, which make the
  preschool teachers responsible for their work,
  accountability

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A critical preschool education and care

• A CRITICAL THEORY OF SOCIETY
• Western neo-liberal democracy as the end of
  history, or?
• Fukuyama 1989
• The Empire and the Crowd
• Hardt Negri 2000, 2006
• The Empire holds three dimensions
• - En exclusive circle of the most powerful
  countries
• - Multinational companies
• - Non government organizations and other lobby
  org.
• The Crowd
• - A manifold of productive and creative subjects

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A critical preschool education and care

• A CRITICAL THEORY OF SOCIETY
• Three political demands in order to develop a
  global direct democracy a radical democracy
• The right of citizen ship of the world
• The right to civic pay
• The right to control means of production and also
  control of own body and consciousness
• Hardt Negri 2000, 2006

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A critical preschool education and care

• A CRITICAL THEORY OF SOCIETY
• A demand of recognition on three levels
• Private sphere ? Relations of love ? Basic
  confidence ? Physical integrity
• Sphere of legal relations ? Legally universal
  rights ? Self respect ? Social integrity
• Sphere of community of value ? Cultural and
  political communities ? Self esteem ? Honour
  dignity
• Honneth 1995

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A critical preschool education and care

• A FIGHT FOR DEMOCRATIC MEETING PLACES
• A democratic meeting place is a concrete set of
  learning conditions where people come together to
  speak, to dialogue, to share their stories, and
  to struggle together within social relations that
  strengthen rather than weaken the possibility for
  active citizen ship
• Arend in Giroux 1997, s. 106

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A critical preschool education and care

• Education should not only empower students by
  giving them the knowledge and skills they need to
  be able to function in the larger society as
  critical agents, but also educate them for the
  transformative action in the interest of creating
  a truly democratic society
• Giroux, 1988 s. xxxiii

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A critical preschool education and care

• Two necessary tasks in order to go beyond a
  traditional adjustment to school
• Reflect on the educational aims, to formulate the
  long perspective the future people in the future
  society
• Formulate aspect of an educational content, which
  is in close connection to the overall aims in
  other words the involvement of critical themes.

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A critical preschool education and care

• OVERALL DEMOCRATIC AIMS
• A legitimating basis for a critical and
  emancipatory education
• Equip individuals to engage in active and
  democratic participation
• The Treaty of Lisbon, 2000
• Day care must give children possibility for
  participation in decision making and joint
  responsibility and understanding for democracy.
  More contribute to childrens autonomy and
  abilities to participate in binding social
  communities
• Denmark The ministry of Welfare 2007

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A critical preschool education and care

• THE EDUCATIONAL CONTENT
• Category Bildung and epoch typical problems
• War and peace
• The North-South, East-West conflict
• The problem of nationalism
• The ecological problem
• The social produced disparity
• The danger and possibility of new management- and
  communications media.
• Klafki 1994

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