Reggio Emilia, Vygotsky, and Family Childcare: Four American Providers Describe their Pedagogical Practice

Abstract

This case study considers pedagogical techniques used in family childcare to promote children's learning experiences. Data extracted from an earlier study were used to inform this examination of four family childcare providers' pedagogy. In the current study, I use socio-cultural theory and the Reggio Emilia approach to address the following research question: how do family childcare providers describe learning experiences of children in their care? Four themes emerged from the data: responsiveness to children, children's play, reflective thinking, and didactic teaching. The study indicated that providers' work is informal, but nonetheless these caregivers follow a natural, experiential learning, along with more didactic practices common to traditional classrooms.

‘It all depends … ’ A Real Life Learning model informing childminding pedagogy in Ireland

“…Nonetheless, most childminding in Europe and the USA operates in the informal sector (Child in Mind 2017; Tonyan, Paulsell, and Shivers 2017). Moreover, researchers consider that few quality measures have effectively captured the potential strengths of childminding (Bromer, McCabe, and Porter 2013), and research documenting childminding praxis and pedagogy on the ground is very rare (Freeman 2011).…”

Infants in Family Day Care: Stories of Smooth and Striated Space

“…The use of participants' voices, however, represents an acknowledgement that what participants have to say is equally important as what researchers have to say and that participants may be afforded the opportunity to express themselves in their own words. For example, Freeman and Vakil (2007) and Freeman (2011) focused upon educators' own stories and reflections in their research on four FDC educators' practice. Informal, open-ended interviews and journals were used to gather participants' stories in their own words.…”