Ontario Kindergarten Teachers’ Social Media Discussions About Full Day Kindergarten

Abstract

This exploratory netnographic study describes how a sample of Ontario kindergarten teachers perceives the new Ontario Full Day Kindergarten (FDK) curriculum. Discussions from teacher message boards, the comment sections of online news articles, and interviews with kindergarten teachers were analyzed and coded using a qualitative approach. Analysis revealed three major themes: 1) Class size concerns, 2) Team teaching concerns, and 3) Play-based curriculum concerns. Results are in broad agreement with those reported in existing research into Ontario’s FDK initiative. Findings highlight the need for further research with educators involved in Ontario’s FDK and also contribute to the burgeoning field of netnography research. Suggestions for future research and practice are included.Cette recherche exploratoire et netnographique décrit la manière dont un échantillon d’enseignants ontariens travaillant à la maternelle perçoivent le nouveau programme de maternelle et jardins d’enfants à temps plein (MJTP). Des discussions relevées sur des babillards électroniques, les sections commentaires d’articles de nouvelles en ligne et des entrevues effectuées auprès d’enseignants à la maternelle ont été analysées et codées en utilisant une approche qualitative. Ces analyses ont révélées trois axes majeures de préoccupations: 1) celles relatives à la taille des groupes, 2) celles concernant l’enseignement en équipe et 3) celles portant sur le programme d’apprentissage axé sur le jeu. Les résultats de l’étude concordent avec ceux signalés par les projets de recherches pilotés par le gouvernement de l’Ontario dans le cadre du projet de MJTP. Ceux-ci soulignent le besoin de mener de plus amples recherches auprès des enseignants impliqués dans le projet ontarien de MJTP et contribuent également au domaine naissant de la recherche netnographique. Des suggestions pour des projets de recherche futurs et pour la pratique sont également formulées

ECE teachers’ views on play-based learning: a systematic review

“…This may translate into implementation anxiety, particularly in planning time as well as designing and managing appropriate content. As Lynch (2014) notes, reliance on the government and preschool management boards rather than teachers' professional judgement and authority may feature as solutions.…”

“…Also, a fear of sticking out and adjusting tacitly to a communally sanctioned approach is mentioned as a reason for implementation difficulties (Cheng 2001;Howard 2010). In addition to horizontal, inter-collegiate attitudinal misalignment, differential understandings of PBL may also transpire vertically as a potential conflict between preschool staff and management and, also, cross-institutionally as a value-laden conflict between different preschools (Aubrey and Durmaz 2012) as well as preschool and school cultures of learning (Lynch 2014;. This necessarily makes individual, cross-institutional mobility potentially problematic.…”

“…In addition to time, teachers struggle to engage in play due to large class sizes and, relatedly, understaffing (e.g. Hegde and Cassidy 2009;Lynch 2014). Alternatively, one could see this as yet another configuration of time-related pressure to cater for the needs of too many children and thus sidelining play-based pedagogies for practical reasons.…”

A scoping review of research on play‐based pedagogies in kindergarten education

“…A shift towards the promotion of learning through play in kindergarten has taken place in countries such as Canada (Lynch, ), China (Pan & Li, ), United Arab Emirates (Baker, ), Britain (Tafa, ), New Zealand (Synodi, ), Japan (Hegde, Sugita, Crane‐Mitchell & Averett, ), Greece (Tafa, ), Singapore (Ling‐Yin, ), and South Korea (Kim, ). At the same time, in many of these countries there is a strong push for high quality academic learning in the early years in order to prepare children for subsequent schooling (e.g.…”

“…Ling‐Yin, ). This dual emphasis on academic standards and learning through play has led to reported tensions from educators struggling to integrate the concepts of learning and play (Hegde & Cassidy, ; Lynch, ). Historically, research indicates that kindergarten educators separated play‐based learning from academics (Pramling Samuelsson & Johansson, ); however, curricular mandates require teachers to shift their perspective towards teaching academic learning through play (e.g.…”