This study tested the hypothesis that children's books accurately reflect the gender-based division of labor in the culture and historical period in which they were published. A content analysis was performed on illustrations in books that won the Caldecott Medal or Honor between 1990 and 2009. The final sample included 490 illustrations in 68 of…

Using multiple years of data collected from about 100 child care centers in Palm Beach County, Florida, the authors studied whether the Quality Improvement System (QIS) made a significant impact on quality of child care centers. Based on a pre- and postresearch design spanning a period of 13 months, QIS appeared to be effective in improving…

Blogs in classrooms represent a new approach to teaching writing that is developing and changing daily. Although some scholarly literature explores the use of blogs in educational settings, the blogs are primarily being used at the secondary and college levels. The purpose of this qualitative case study research was to explore how blogging…

Nine 2nd-grade students who struggled with writing learned the Ask, Reflect, Text (ART) strategy to help them better address the content that should be included in narrative stories. After asking the questions that address what should be included in their text, students used art media as they reflected to illustrate their answers. They used this…

The present study seeks to extend current thinking on participatory research by actively engaging 36 young children with and without a known disability in all aspects of a research project. Matched according to age and gender, six dyads of children attending four early years settings in Northern Ireland chose the research question, selected the…

There have been an increasing number of research studies using participatory, visual methods with young children. This article will explore the possibilities and challenges of extending these methods as tools for listening to early childhood practitioners as well as to young children. This research is based on a longitudinal study carried out…

The purpose of this study is to continue research conversations with young children about their lived experiences. A central philosophy underpinning this work seeks an acknowledgment of the "presence" of children and their accounts of life, as an essential element to understanding their social worlds. The research methodology draws upon an…

In this empirical study, the appropriation of a symbolic skill by a five-year old child is analysed. His evolving production and understanding are investigated through his sign-making and his explanations of these when speaking with a researcher. The child is studied in his home. A contrasting case of another child of the same age also making…

The emotional side of the mind, which expresses itself through emotions, sentiments and moods, plays an important role in human existence because it conditions our own way of being in the world. On this premise, a qualitative research with children was undertaken in order to facilitate the expression of the emotions. The participants were children…

The current study was conducted with groups of first grade children (aged six years) in two primary schools in Reykjavik in an endeavour to ascertain how they recalled and reconstructed their playschool experiences. The children's playschool teachers were co-researchers participating in the data generation; they were, at the same time participants…

The first part of this article reports a project in which children were consulted about ways to improve transition to school. Children from 14 schools and prior-to-school settings collaborated with their peers and teachers to plan, implement and document transition to school. Children attending school reflected on their own experiences while…

The policies and administration of early education and support for social development constantly need re-defining, or re-inspiring, by taking into account the perspective of a young child. They must acknowledge the intuitive abilities and values, and growing initiatives that are present in the child from birth and that motivate learning. Innate…

The study proposes an analysis of the processes through which the material and symbolic features of the setting and the activities of the educators interact to determine the children's experience in an early educational centre. This analysis is of particular interest with regard to both educational practice and understanding developmental…

Set mainly in a UK context between 2003-2007, this article presents selected findings from a doctoral study, Companionable Learning: The Development of Resilient Well-being from Birth to Three; and from a series of subsequent studies carried out in English settings. Two questions have been explored: firstly, what are the interdependent components…

Democracy is at the core of the beliefs, values and principles of Pedagogy-in-Participation, the pedagogical perspective of the Childhood Association which is based in Portugal. Thus, it is proposed that early childhood education centres should be organised for democracy to constitute, simultaneously, an end and a mean, i.e. to constitute a…