Early learning opportunities for children at risk of social exclusion. Opening the black box of preschool practice

Abstract

Influenced by a growing number of longitudinal studies showing positive effects of preschool attendance, ECEC is framed as a potential equaliser of opportunities, especially to the benefit of children at risk of social exclusion and children from families with a migration background in particular. The preschool age is considered a crucial period for young children's language acquisition and there is consensus that stimulating and supportive teacher-child interactions in enriched classroom settings are paramount. However, research on daily interactions in contexts of diversity and multilingualism is still scarce and, as a result, the qualitative processes by which the preschool may be equalizing or reproducing the gap, remain under-theorized. In the present study, eight children living in poverty (most of whom had a migrant background) were closely followed during their first year in pre-primary education through detailed video-observations of daily interactions. The results of the in-depth quantitative and qualitative analysis of 54 activities are presented. The results show that both the quantity and the quality of individual verbal interactions were low. The children were hardly addressed individually by the teacher, the number of verbal learning opportunities was limited and there were few opportunities for language production. The majority of the utterances of the teacher towards the children was directive and disciplining in nature and the home languages of the children were not valued. The few examples where teachers used a home language in individual interactions were intended to better direct the behavior of the child. By closely observing individual interactions, unintended mechanisms that hinder an equal distribution of learning opportunities were found in each of the four classes. As such, the results of the study suggest that preschools may also be confirming or even broadening existing inequalities.

Help and Solidarity Interactions in Interactive Groups: A Case Study with Roma and Immigrant Preschoolers

“…Based on the prominence of the help interactions we observed, we argue that the IGs format challenges the idea that immigrant children are not stimulated to ask other children for help or to give support to another child (Peleman et al 2019). Indeed, seeking and providing help appear to be optimal scaffolds for the children to support each other in understanding tasks.…”

Does pre-schooling contribute to equity in education? Participation in universal pre-school and fourth-grade academic achievement

“…Recent qualitative research conducted in four Flemish pre-schools educating children from poor families can illustrate this point. It demonstrated that in entry classes for 2.5- to three-year-olds, linguistic interactions between teachers and children, and among the children, provided few learning opportunities, which lacked, moreover, the high quality in language input and interaction that is needed to adequately develop academic language proficiency (Peleman et al, 2020; see also Roose et al, 2014).…”

Early childhood education research in Europe: contexts, policies, and ideas

“…Existing research in other European contexts highlights the problems of low quantity and quality of verbal and other interactions experienced by migrant or marginalised children (Peleman, Vandenbroeck, & Van Avermaet, 2020). This only compounds and reinforces the negative stereotypes and ideas educators hold over specific minority groups.…”