Learning in the Making

This article presents an overview of the human capital approach to human development and how it has been used for evaluating early education programs. It critiques the human capital approach by considering how its focus on measurable returns on economic investments limits an understanding of the full and complex contribution of early education to young children’s development and well-being. The capabilities approach described by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum provides a more thorough framework for understanding the influence of early education on young children’s development and well-being. The article proposes that integrating the human capital approach within the capabilities approach addresses the critiques of the human capital approach and provides a more inclusive context for understanding and assessing the full contribution of early education to children’s development and well-being. It concludes with the implications that such integration has for assessment practices in early childhood.

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Implications For Early Childhood Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The capabilities approach: Rethinking agency, freedom, and capital in early education

Buzzelli

2015

“…The family and teacher interviews were recorded and transcribed. A selection of the case-study children’s learning stories (Carr et al, 2015; Carr and Lee, 2012; Carr et al, 2010), illustrating strands of New Zealand’s national curriculum Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 1996, 2017), was gathered.…”

Section: The Research Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Belonging and culturally nuanced communication in a refugee early childhood centre in Aotearoa New Zealand

Mitchell

Bateman

2018

As a concept, ‘belonging’ is acknowledged to be complex, culturally determined and multifaceted. The processes of supporting belonging through early childhood education, especially where different cultural beliefs require understanding and negotiation, are not well understood. This is certainly the case for refugee children and families within early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand. Coming to belong is a particular challenge for these families who have been forcibly displaced from their home country. This article analyses documentation and video and interview data from a research study in an early childhood centre for refugee children and families. The ways in which cultural values and communication modes of gesture, spoken language, voice tone and dance were integrated within the curriculum are examined. A main argument is that pedagogy which incorporates key cultural constructs that refugee families bring with them strengthens a sense of belonging.

“…Examples of assessment which incorporate these principles can be found in the recent work of Adair and Colegrove (Adair, 2014; Adair and Colegrove, 2014; Colegrove and Adair, 2014) and of Carr and her colleagues (Carr, 2001; Carr and Lee, 2012; Carr et al, 2009). The assessment practices developed by Carr and her colleagues are used in a preschool setting, and while not specifically framing them with the capability approach, they are consistent with the capability approach’s principles as outlined above.…”

Section: Assessment In Early Childhood Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Learning Stories is a method of assessment developed by Carr (2001) and then expanded on with her colleagues (Carr and Lee, 2012; Carr et al, 2009). A central goal of Learning Stories is that teachers involve children as active agents in the selection of learning activities and in the assessment of their participation in those activities.…”

Section: Assessment In Early Childhood Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The moral dimensions of assessment in early childhood education

Buzzelli

2018

This article conceptualizes assessment in early childhood education as a moral practice using Amartya Sen’s capability approach and Thomas A Schwandt’s practical hermeneutic approach to assessment and evaluation. After describing the moral connection Sen makes between development and assessment, Schwandt’s conceptualization of evaluation is presented as reframing it from a technical practice to one based on practical moral knowledge, having moral significance for teachers and children. Assessment as a moral practice must be done from two perspectives: from the learner’s perspective to assess children’s agency in guiding their own learning, and from the environment’s perspective to assess the opportunities for learning afforded children by the environment. Balancing assessment from these two perspectives is a moral challenge for teachers. The final section examines the recent work by Margaret Carr and Jennifer Keys Adair, who offer new approaches to assessment in early childhood that incorporate methods consistent with the capability approach and Schwandt. The goal of the article is to outline a moral practice of assessment in early childhood education.