Early childhood teacher research and social-emotional learning: Implications for the development of culturally sensitive curriculum in Singapore

Abstract

Teacher research has been promoted as a context-relevant approach to improving children’s learning experiences in early childhood settings. In this article, we focus on social-emotional learning (SEL), a crucial domain of the early childhood curriculum, to illustrate the role of teacher research in changing early childhood teachers’ everyday practices. We present an informative project on facilitating toddlers’ conflict resolution to exemplify the process of early childhood teacher research for supporting SEL. Evidence of the teacher research project revealed that integrating the child-focused approach into the existing curriculum was beneficial for promoting children’s conflict resolution skills and self-regulation. As situated in the particular context of Singapore, this case of teacher research presents how to successfully innovate early childhood curriculum practices within sociocultural realities, which include the hierarchical management culture, the imbalance between pressure upon and support for teachers, and limited time and resources. Suggestions and implications for early childhood practitioners and policymakers are also discussed.

Curriculum Hybridization and Cultural Glocalization: A Scoping Review of International Research on Early Childhood Curriculum in China and Singapore

“… Note. FC = formal curriculum; PC = perceived curriculum; OC = operational curriculum. a Category refers to which levels of curriculum have been involved in the research reported by a particular article. b Australia and New Zealand are also included in Yang et al’s (2022) study. c Nine other countries are also included in Oberhuemer’s (2005) study. d U.S. is also included in Wang et al’s (2008) study. e Seven other countries are also included in Miyahara and Meyers’s (2008) analysis. f Norway is also included in Hammer and He’s (2016) study. g U.S.…”

“…And children are expected to participate in and enjoy various arts experiences (Kim & Kim, 2017). However, Yang et al (2022) identified five contextual considerations that deserve attention (pp. 10–11): (1) acknowledge the values of teacher-directed, explicit instruction; (2) recognize the necessity of the pre-academic preparation for young children in preschools to ease their transition to primary schools; (3) concretely illustrate how to enact the idea of “purposeful play” in the classroom; (4) justify how to meet the predetermined learning goals of distinct learning areas via integrated learning; and (5) identify the existing constraints in the wider educational landscape to smoothen the NEL framework's implementation in practice.…”

“…First, both countries have launched their recent ECC reforms since the turn of the new millennium to upgrade the provision of ECE services (Yang & Li, 2019b;Yang, Li et al, 2021, Yang, Peh et al, 2021. Second, although being a multiethnic and multicultural society, Singapore shares the Chinese Confucian culture due to Chinese Singaporeans constituting over 70% of the Singaporean population (Mah et al, 2021).…”

“…The rigid schedule, teacher-student ratio, and classroom environment are the constraints that have restricted teachers from fully implementing the formal curriculum (Bautista et al, 2018;Yang, Li et al, 2021, Yang, Peh et al, 2021). In the most child-initiated section of the OC, learning center time, Bautista et al's (2019) observational evidence indicated that children had very little freedom of choice when playing with the materials and were usually required to complete assignments such as worksheets.…”

“…Different authors (e.g., Birbili & Hedges, 2021; Spodek & Saracho, 1996; Yang & Li, 2020; Yang et al, 2022) stress the importance of cultures for shaping curriculum policies and practices in ECE. However, the embedded cultural structures that regulate ECE still lack investigation and understanding, especially when we only measure individual traits, process norms, and child outcomes to explain early learning experiences.…”