Children’s Perspective on Learning: An International Study in Denmark, Estonia, Germany and Sweden

Sandberg, Anette; Broström, Stig; Johansson, Inge; Frøkjær, Thorleif; Kieferle, Christa; Seifert, Anja; Roth, Angela; Tuul, Maire; Ugaste, Aino; Laan, Meeli

doi:10.1007/s10643-015-0759-5

Cited by 21 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Maria José, who was in the same focus group as Ruby, added, "Yeah, we read to get smart, and we get smarter to go to first grade." This framing of learning as the development of such academic skills as reading, which is tied to the "activities related to school," mimics the findings of Sandberg et al (2017) who found that children in Denmark, Estonia, Germany, and Sweden also "perceived learning as development of academic skills" (p. 79). Moreover, these kindergarteners' comments are similar to their statements about what kindergarten is (e.g., Andre) in which they appeared to connect this idea of getting smarter through learning to read to preparing themselves for first grade and beyond.…”

Section: Readingsupporting

confidence: 72%

Make Kindergarten “Funner”: Examining how Kindergarteners Made Sense of the Changed Kindergarten

Brown

Barry

2021

Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education

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Background/Context Over the last two decades, policymakers’ standards-based accountability reforms in the United States have fundamentally changed public schooling in general and kindergarten specifically. As this has occurred, little has been learned about how the children themselves make sense of these changes in schooling. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The purpose of this article is to address this issue by providing insight into how a sample of kindergarteners enrolled in a public kindergarten in Texas made sense of their experiences in kindergarten today in relation to two research questions: a) How did they make sense of their educational experiences in kindergarten?, and b) How would they like to alter kindergarten so that it reflects their understanding of schooling? Research Design This is an explorative qualitative, video-cued, multivocal ethnographic research study. Data were generated through focus-group interviews with 19 kindergarteners in Texas. The students were asked about how they made sense of the changed kindergarten through viewing a micro-level example of their kindergarten classroom in Texas. The video the kindergarteners watched and commented on provides a coherent narrative that captured shortened versions of each of the activities they participate in over a typical day in their classroom. Findings/Results The findings shared in this article illuminate these kindergarteners’ understandings of kindergarten as well as whether or not they believed they would be able to succeed in a school system that expects them to learn more academic content and demonstrate their knowledge on an increasing number of standardized tests. These findings also provide insight into the changes these kindergarteners would like to see made to kindergarten to improve their learning experiences in school. Conclusions/Recommendations The kindergarteners in this study framed kindergarten as a place they go to learn academic content that they believe will allow them to progress to and through subsequent grade levels. Though they enjoyed kindergarten and had strong relationships with their teacher, they would like more opportunities for physical activity and choice throughout the day, which echo the sentiments of other early childhood education stakeholders and researchers. As these were kindergarteners enrolled in a typical public kindergarten, additional insight into these issues could be gained by seeking out the voices of children in different kindergarten programs (e.g., private, play-based, half-day, etc.) or from these same children at different points in their educational careers.

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Section: Readingsupporting

confidence: 72%

Make Kindergarten “Funner”: Examining how Kindergarteners Made Sense of the Changed Kindergarten

Brown

Barry

2021

Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education

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“…Similarly, pupil-teacher relationships built on care, mutual respect and trust are vital for promoting a positive learning environment. The significance of positive relationships in producing a school environment conducive to personal growth has led to research which highlights the inclusionary or exclusionary processes within the classroom and playground dynamics (Sandberg et al, 2017; Warming, 2019). School is thus a space which clearly locates children in a process of social and personal development, a process of ‘becoming’.…”

Section: Children’s Sense Of School Connectedness and Belongingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A primary focus of this body of literature has been on questions of power and the ways in which school communities can give children ‘voice’, to express their ideas and participate in decision-making processes (Bjerke, 2011; Robinson, 2014). Other studies have focused on children’s experiences of specific aspects of their school lives, such as learning (Sandberg et al, 2017) or children’s transitions within the school system (Booth et al, 2019). However, there are surprisingly few studies that have aimed to achieve a more general understanding of children’s perspectives on what ‘school’ means for them as a space of (non)belonging, as a collective experience and also as a process of becoming.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children at transition from primary school reflecting on what schools are for – narratives of connectedness, (mis)recognition and becoming

Sime

Gilligan²,

Scholtz

2021

Childhood

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This article draws on a school-based case study carried out in Scotland with 11–12-year-olds reflecting on their views and experiences of school before transitioning from primary to secondary school. Drawing on Honneth’s recognition theory, and the dimensions of love, rights and solidarity, the findings show that school was seen by children as a place of dialogue, reciprocity and recognition; the learning and knowledge activities cannot be separated from the relational and emotional aspects. When misrecognition happens, subjects’ identity and sense of self-respect can be deeply violated.

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“…We merged these two categories in this section following the principles of group discussions with children which are well documented in the literature and which aim at creating a secure, friendly and non-threatening environment for children to speak freely alongside their significant others, their peers (Barbour, 2008;Vaughn, Schumm and Sinagub, 1996). We also considered that one of the main differences we found between using focus groups-following the authors' definition-in few studies, such as those of Hammond, Hesterman and Knaus (2015) and Sandberg et al (2017), and using group discussions in studies like those from Adderley et al (2015), Green (2015) and Wahle et al (2017), was the way in which the discussion was structured and facilitated. However, the main aim was the same-listening to what children had to say in a safe environment where they feltvalued and heard.…”

Section: Universidad Pedagógica Nacional Colombiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Methodological Strategies to Listen to Children’s Voices: A Systematic Critical Review

Urbina-García

2019

Rev. Colomb. Educ.

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This article reports a systematic review of educational research relating to the most common methodological strategies used by researchers to listen to children’s voices. We followed the EPPI-centre approach (2007) to identify what the most widely used methodological strategies are, in order to listen to the voice of 3 to 7 years olds children. Our review identified 210 empirical studies from peer-reviewed journals written in English and Spanish between 2015 and 2018, of which, only 34 studies met the inclusion criteria for this study. Findings revealed that adult-led interviews and adult-led observations were the most common methodological strategies to listen to children’s voices followed by group discussions to a lesser extent. We found limited evidence of studies using hands-on activities where children were given the power to decide how to, and what type of information they wanted to express (i.e., school child-led tours), however these strategies did not prevail in the literature reviewed. Issues of adult-child power imbalances were identified -arguably posing challenges to listen to children’s voices. These findings have implications for policy, practice and research internationally.

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Children’s Perspective on Learning: An International Study in Denmark, Estonia, Germany and Sweden

Cited by 21 publications

References 26 publications

Make Kindergarten “Funner”: Examining how Kindergarteners Made Sense of the Changed Kindergarten

Make Kindergarten “Funner”: Examining how Kindergarteners Made Sense of the Changed Kindergarten

Children at transition from primary school reflecting on what schools are for – narratives of connectedness, (mis)recognition and becoming

Methodological Strategies to Listen to Children’s Voices: A Systematic Critical Review

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