In recent decades, refugee immigration has had significant impact on educational contexts in Sweden, with preschools the primary arenas for young children's language learning experiences. The present study examines second language and literacy training practices for immigrant children (aged 1-5) in preschools in Sweden. The empirical data consist…

This paper forms part of a study which used Bakhtinian concepts to explore the interactions between children aged from 3½ to 5 years and their teachers in two early childhood settings. The paper focuses on the dialogic research approach that was used as the methodological framework, whereby two of the teachers and the researcher engaged in…

The development of racial awareness begins in infancy, continues throughout early childhood, and can shape play behaviors. The present study is a case study in a US pre-kindergarten classroom. The study aimed to examine the ways in which ideas about race and gender manifested within doll play. Participants included two 4-year-old Black girls,…

The study focuses on teachers' and children's shared moments of joy in early childhood education settings and contributes new knowledge in educational research by exploring joy as a relational rather than an individual phenomenon. The theoretical and methodological framework draws on a narrative approach and Martin Buber's dialogical philosophy.…

While preschool educators are currently encouraged to educate young children in and for sustainable development, limited observational research has focused on documenting how sustainability notions are introduced or discussed in preschools. Drawing on a large database of videos of practice, this study describes typical features of conversations…

This article examines how material objects such as photographs, papers and computers influence documentation practices in a Swedish preschool. The importance of teacher documentation is emphasized in the 2010 revised Swedish preschool curriculum as a means of evaluating preschool quality. However, the curriculum gives no specific guidelines about…

This research explored how values are communicated in everyday life at preschool. This narrative inquiry focused on how values are conveyed through the use of a material artefact, a chart with traffic lights, as a communication and pedagogical tool. Twenty children aged 3-4 years in one Finnish preschool were involved in the initial data…

Affording children's agency is an important pedagogical underpinning of a high-quality early childhood program. Yet little is known about how teachers' interactions create spaces for children's agency. From the perspectives of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, this paper investigates how teachers and children navigate agency through…

Developing a sense of belonging and experiences about the value of community are important democratic values that children may learn during play in preschool. Through the different ways that teachers' interact with children during play, children can learn about democratic values. This study is part of a Nordic project on values education in early…

This paper examines the significance of a "look" in infant-teacher dialogues in an early education and care centre in New Zealand. Drawing on Bakhtin's principle of "visual surplus" video recordings of two infants', aged under 1 year of age, interactions with their teacher and teacher interpretations of these interactions were…

The purpose of the present article was to gain knowledge about what aspects of, and in what way, contextual and conceptual intersubjectivity contribute to emergent science knowledge about sound. Starting from a Vygotskian theoretical base, the article rests on the work of Fleer (early learning and development. Cultural-historical concepts in play,…

This article reports a meta-analysis based on a multiple case study of the use of learning study (LS) to understand children's learning in Swedish preschool. The aim is to investigate whether and how the LS model can be developed, adjusted and used to meet contemporary demands placed upon preschool teachers for increased content focus and improved…

Traditionally, play has been viewed as the guiding pedagogical practice for kindergartens in most industrialised countries. Central to this approach has been a strong belief in free play. As governments are spending more money on early childhood education, many Western countries are demanding greater learning outcomes for preschool aged children.…

This article reports upon a Portuguese pedagogical model, where children engage with the teacher in planning and assessment during routine activities like "Council Meetings", "Communication Time," and using specific tools such as an "Activities Chart" and a "Diary." The article questions how these processes generate a community of practice in…

In a general sense, the research interest of this article concerns the preschool class, which is an intermediate form of schooling for six-year-olds in Sweden, between preschool and school and their two traditions of "play" and "learning," respectively. In a more specific sense, the issue of learning one aspect of basic…