Infants and toddlers as learners: Pedagogy in the first years
Funding Year: 2008
Type: 2 years
Organisation: Victoria University of Wellington
Principal Investigator
Carmen Dalli, Institute for Early Childhood Studies, Jessie Hetherington Centre for Educational Research
Research Team
Janita Craw, Iris Duhn, Jean Rockel and Keryn Doyle
Partnerships
Victoria University of Wellington, with University of Auckland, AUT University, Auckland, and a variety of urban early childhood centres in Auckland and Wellington
Project Aims
The historical emphasis on young children receiving care rather than education means that understanding infants and toddlers as learners can be challenging for many teachers.This is a two-year qualitative case-study project investigating children’s learning during specific events in their childcare experience. It involves five academic researchers each working with at least two teacher partners in one of five childcare settings in Auckland and Wellington. By focusing on selected events during the children’s daily childcare experience that illustrate a number of specific learning dimensions, the project investigates how teachers understand, enact and articulate their infant toddler pedagogy. A key aim of the project is to explore how learning might be strengthened for very young children.
Research Questions
The project addresses four research questions as follows:
1. What are infants and toddlers experiencing as learners in early childcare centres?
2. How do teachers construct infants and toddlers as learners?
3. How do teachers’ constructions inform their pedagogy with infants and toddlers?
4. What would strengthen learning in infant and toddler centres from the perspective of teachers and families?