This month’s post is written by Dr Jackie Musgrave, Associate Head of School (ECYS) for Learning and Teaching

A recent tweet from EdPsychEd (@EdPsychEd) has really made me wonder if we are losing sight of the importance of physical activity for very young children? The tweet reminds us that if a child appears to not be listening during lessons, it doesn’t mean that they are being disrespectful.  The tweet goes on to say that children are often sensitive to internal and external influences that can impact on their ability to listen.  Such influences include the possibility that a child may need a toilet break, or something to eat, or their clothes may be itchy, or they may need to get outside and move around.  However, children are increasingly finding themselves in environments that constrict and/or restrict their opportunities and ability to move their bodies. For example, babies can spend a great deal of time in ‘containers’, in buggies, car seats, slings and highchairs.

Every September, many children are starting school for the first time, and in England some children will only just have celebrated their 4^th birthday.  If they have attended a pre-school nursery setting, they will go from an environment where they have relative freedom to move between activities, and in many nurseries, children are given the choice to move freely between the indoor and outdoor areas.  As an Ofsted report stated, ‘We know that in the early years, a crucial part of preparing children for school is developing their muscular strength and dexterity. The best nurseries recognise this and encourage children to be busy and active’.(Ofsted 2018, p 270)

But once they are in ‘big’ school they are expected to sit for prolonged periods of time, either at tables or often for school assemblies, sitting on the floor with their legs crossed.  This experience can be made even more uncomfortable by having to wear an unfamiliar school uniform; in addition, playtime and outdoor access is often limited and regimented.

So how do the changes in children’s lives and these restrictions affect their physical health?  We are all aware of the ‘obesity epidemic’ and in part, this is attributed to reports and concerns about the overall reduction in children’s physical activity.  However, physical activity is important for all areas of babies’ and children’s development and critically, it is also vital for children’s mental health.

The restrictions caused by the pandemic have had an impact on children’s physical activity and their development.  For children who live in housing and within communities that are not conducive to supporting children to move freely, the restrictions have had a negative impact.   Findings from another Ofsted report highlights that the impact has been more profound on children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

It is imperative that we recognise that all adults have a shared responsibility to create environments that facilitate and enable children’s physical movement.

As a response to concerns about the need to support children’s physical development, the Open University, Public Health England and ActiveMatters have produced a free online course aimed at professionals and parents, here is the link https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/supporting-physical-development-early-childhood/2

References

Ofsted (2018) The Annual Report of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills 2017/18. Available from https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/761606/29523_Ofsted_Annual_Report_2017-18_041218.pdf

Ofsted (October 2020) COVID-19 series: briefing on early years, October 2020 Evidence from research interviews with 208 registered early years providers and maintained nursery schools between 5 and 16 October. Available from COVID-19 series – briefing on early years – October 2020 (publishing.service.gov.uk) accessed 7 January 2021

Happy New Year everyone! This month the post is written by Professor Natalia Kucirkova of The Open University

Good books enable us to better understand others as well as ourselves. Children’s books are the first encounter young readers have in establishing this understanding. Authors use various techniques to engage children in the story-plot and draw them into a fictional story world. Unlike in fiction books for adults, in children’s books, it is both the illustrations and text that influence children’s learning and enjoyment of a story. A technique that engages children in the story but that is not yet fully researched for its learning potential, is personalization. In my projects, I have been exploring the learning value of children’s personalized stories.

Personalized stories and parent-child difference

 In our recent study (Bruheim Jensen, Studsrød & Kucirkova, 2021) with eleven Norwegian families reading personalized books at home, we noticed some differences between children’s and parents’ focus during reading of personalized books. The books the families read together were customized to the individual children with the main story character carrying the child’s name and looking similar to the child in terms of hair and eye colour. The story plot was about the key story character travelling to Alaska and meeting a bear, who later became the children’s best friend and experienced an adventure with them in the mountains. The parents reported that their children were very enthusiastic about seeing themselves in the book and excited to have an unusual character (a bear) as their friend. The adults, on the other hand, were most interested in the learning quality of the story – were the words and story plot good enough to expand their children’s language? While they liked their child being reflected in the story, they commented on the unlikelihood of their child travelling to Alaska. The parents seemed to have preferred to have the story placed in Norway. The findings made us wonder how many elements would need to be personalized and made specifically about the child for parents to engage with a story as much as the children. The study made us think about the importance of parents in bridging children’s understanding of self and others in personalized stories through abstraction.

The importance of abstract talk in reading

Parents play a crucial role in bridging children’s understanding of self and others. Young children tend to think in concrete terms focusing on the immediate images and text of the book, but adults can engage them in abstract thinking. When children share a book together with their parents, the parents can lift the conversation to an abstract level. Indeed, one of the most beneficial features of parents’ talk during reading is the level of abstractness in their speech. Researchers therefore often explore whether the parents ask the child concrete questions like ‘what is happening in the story’, or more abstract questions like ‘why is this happening in the story’? The more parents engage the child’s thinking on an abstract level, the more likely they are to help with the child’s language learning. In research we call it ‘inferencing’ and it occurs when adults connect the book’s content to the world outside the world. Parents can boost children’s understanding of self and others by making a reference to “possible worlds” or imagined places. Such abstract talk takes the child out of their current thinking about what is on the page to what could be on the page. For example parents can ask, ‘why is this character unhappy?’ or ‘do you think bathing in the lake is a good idea, why do you think so?’

Exploring abstract talk in personalized books

In a project funded by ESRC and focused on digital personalized books, we explored the extent to which parents needed to to draw children out to get them to talk more abstractly. In a study with twenty-six British mothers and their three-to-four-year-old children, we analysed both mothers’ and children’s speech that they produced during the reading of the digital books personalized to the child. We found that the children engaged mostly in concrete, self-focused talk using first-person pronouns such as me, I and my. Their mothers, on the other hand, talked mostly about other story characters. Their talk was characterised by some abstraction (inference), but this occurred only as often as talk focused on immediate identification of key characters and happenings in the book. These insights show that personalized books, where the child is the main story character, might not be the best way to support abstract speech during children’s reading, neither for the child nor for the parent reading with them.

Abstraction through interactivity

Another technique that is popular in children’s contemporary reading and that I explored in my follow-up studies, is interactivity. In children’s digital books, interactivity can be a place in a book that the child needs to touch for a story to progress or interactive music. In fictional interactive books, children are provided with the information about the unknown story characters and clues about the characters’ experiences and the world they inhabit. Readers have to imagine the world in their own minds, using their imagination and actively engaging their existing knowledge and schema. In visual representation of stories, such as films, video games and virtual reality, there is less of this active imagination happening than with pure text. This is because multimedia representations do not give clues but directly provide images and sounds. The trend in multimedia development is to increase the input from the producer and reduce the imagination work of the spectator. In the so-called hyper-reality and 5D experiences, which engage all five senses, including smell and touch, spectators have minimal space to bring in their own imagination. They become owned by the story representation that is served to them and are positioned as a more passive than active meaning-maker. This is not beneficial for children’s abstract thinking.

In my current project, I therefore explore how stories that engage children’s visual, haptic and olfactory senses, connect to their abstract thinking. Together with colleagues at the University of Stavanger, we are currently prototyping books that are easy to touch and that emit various scents to engage children at specific points in the story. Whether the presence of scents and getting a concrete sensory clue prompts more or less of abstract talk among the children, is an open question we will explore in the next three years.

References

Bruheim Jensen, I. B., Studsrød, I.m & Kucirkova, N. (2021) Høytlesning av personaliserte bøker for førskolebarn: Foreldres barneperspektiver og opplevelser. Barn.

Kucirkova, N., Gattis, M., Spargo, T. P., de Vega, B. S., & Flewitt, R. (2021). An empirical investigation of parent-child shared reading of digital personalized books. International Journal of Educational Research, 105, 101710.

By Dr Sarah Jane Mukherjee (The Open University) and Dr Lucía Bugallo (CONICET-Universidad del Comahue, Argentina)

Research into how children conceive of significant aspects of their lives offers insights into their understanding of the world and importantly the way in which childhoods are experienced.  It has implications for design of pedagogy and how pedagogies are able to engage and expand those experiences.

Research by the Play and Learning Scholars (PALS) aims to understand how young children of 5 and 7 years old conceive of play and its relation to learning in five sites across different countries (Argentina, Denmark, Hong Kong, the UK and US). Understanding young children’s conceptions of their worlds is a challenge: How can we capture the process of constructing and communicating a worldview? What are the ways in which children best express themselves? What kind of tasks can we offer to maintain engagement? What cultural considerations should be made? Sensitive to the aims of the research and our young participants, a playful engagement was developed for the study and employed across the five different sites. This blog outlines the features of the engagement highlighting the decisions made that were intended to offer a social and enjoyable encounter in which the children could be deeply involved and in which they would feel comfortable to think and express themselves.

Card design: Building on previous work by members of the project team, we developed a card sorting activity as the foundation of the first part of the participant engagement. We designed a set of 36 cards with line drawings depicting children (alone and with peers) and adults engaged in different activities, some of which were ‘playful’, such as swinging or hula hooping, and some  ‘everyday’ activities such as laying the table or tying shoelaces.  The team members all agreed the activities represented to ensure that they would be familiar for the children in the different cultural contexts.

Card sorting activity: In the engagement itself we started by explaining to the children that we, as adults, needed their expert help to understand how they think about play, and each child was invited to spread the cards out on a table. Then, the child was asked to sort cards that they thought represented play and not play and separately learning and not learning. Placing the cards in two separate baskets each time, the child sorted the cards four times. The children delighted in this activity, sometimes selecting cards in silence and sometimes articulating their thoughts about the activity depicted on the card and their decision, sometimes changing their minds. After the first sort, excited utterances such as ‘I know what to do’ showed that the children were actively involved in the task, and the familiarity of the task seems to increase their enjoyment of the activity.

Card selecting activity and an invitation to reflect on play: Having enjoyed the card sorting activity, the children were relaxed and engaged, and this was a perfect moment to pose some guided questions. This part of the engagement aimed to probe for details around affective and social factors that may have influenced their choices of activities that were play/ not-play and learning/ not-learning. To do this, the child was invited again to spread out the cards and select the one they thought was most representative taking play, not-play, learning and not-learning in turn. For each we asked the child to justify their selection with an open question and prompts to encourage her/ him to explain the reasons for their choices. Some children offered quite detailed explanations, such as this five-year-old girl from Argentina:

‘Because I love playing with play dough, I want to learn to make the dough, and I love playing with dough at kindergarten. I always play and I have some to make gnocchi, to make a sausage and then cut the gnocchi. Then we make a ball, I press it like this and I put little olives and make a pizza to give to the teacher’.

The children reflected on their own and other’ preferences and experiences, like this seven-year-old boy from the UK: ‘Because you can dress-up anything in your imagination and you can pretend you are a monster or a bear or a superhero, and it makes me feel really happy, really, and sets my imagination free’.

Teaching a puppet: Then the fun really started. A complete shift in the engagement surprised the children as they were invited to play teacher. The researcher told the child that they had a friend they’d like them to meet – the puppets Zim and Rikko. As the puppet came from a planet on which they didn’t play/learn, the children were asked to ‘teach’ Zim to play and Rikko to learn. Some children offered instructions of a game, like this 5-year-old from Denmark: ‘Soap bubbles: You just have to blow with force but you have to do it slowly with force’. Some children focused on the attitudes that best favour playing or learning, like this 5-year old boy from US: ‘If you wanna play you have to be nice’, or focused on the affective state that emerges during play: ‘Playing will make you laugh. If you laugh, then it shows that you are happy. When you are happy, you will know that you are playing’ (7-year-old girl, Hong Kong). A 7-year-old from the UK explained to Zim what is play through these words: ‘Playing is where you have to be with somebody else and it’s like a board game or something, or cards, and you can take turns on doing it, and you can get frustrated sometimes, maybe, when people take you over’.

This playful engagement offered the children a way of expressing their own voices allowing them to reflect on their ideas of play and its relation to learning and in so doing, the research team were rewarded with a rich data set.

Sarah Jane Mukherjee and Lucía Bugallo

This project was funded by the LEGO Foundation.

PALS Project Team members [in alphabetical order of RA]: Lucía Bugallo & Nora Scheuer (IPEHCS-CONICET-Universidad del Comahue), Doris Cheng (Tung Wah College),        Sarah Jane Mukherjee & Teresa Cremin (The Open University), Jill Popp (The LEGO Foundation), Marcia Preston & Roberta Golinkoff (University of Delaware).

This month our post is written by Karen Horsley (lecturer, Early Childhood) and Jill Robertson (Associate lecturer, Early Childhood)

Picture this, what if your challenge was to create an original recipe for modern childhood. What ingredients would you choose from the modern childhood pantry? Will the mixture be much like your own childhood? Or can you imagine new flavours and ways of mixing things up?

The recipes our students produced:

Like cooking or baking, childhood is so diverse, and there are so many recipes! We asked our students to reflect on their views of modern childhood in our Show & Tell ‘modern childhood’ induction activity. Here’s what they produced, and below are some ‘quotes and common phrases’ they used in their own recipes! As you can see it was full of different fantastic FLAVOURS

• Fruitful discussions: There was a refreshing look at some super examples of the wide range of materials to ‘spark imagination’ and ‘learning’ including the use of ‘loose parts’, and ‘tuff trays’, all current hot topics and flavours!
• Lovely passionfruit: A real passion for children, came across in the recipes including ‘I love’ and a ‘respect for play’ which many recognised as ‘an important way to learn’. This was coupled with the ‘importance of rights, voice and choice.’ All were combined with a ‘belief in the child’ and a commitment to ensuring their ‘health and wellbeing are protected’ and that they ‘reach their potential’.
• Array of exotic tastes: Many were not afraid to bring something unusual to the table. And felt ‘relief’ in the knowledge they could be ‘not afraid to tackle areas such as mental health’ coupled with a keenness to ‘overcome the fear of risky play’.
• Varying blends: Perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea! But there were some super variations. For example, ‘a fair bit of worry around too much screen time’ was ‘balanced’ nicely with ‘how important technology can be’ and a clear taste for the ‘many benefits of children using technology’.
• Organic produce: We saw much flavour for ensuring ‘children’s experiences and opinions are at the forefront of their learning environments’. Particularly in reference to the importance of ‘free experiences’ such as “’messy play’ and ‘outdoor experience’ which many recipes included.
• Unbelievable taste: There was an unbelievable taste and ‘excitement for learning’ that came from swapping recipes! Many ‘rethought ideas or reconsidered topics.
• Refreshing palate: There were some new fresh and interesting ingredients this year, including ‘the impact of the pandemic’ and the ‘value of discussing mental health’! Each brought their own exciting new flavours and added depth to the existing range of topics considered with a recognition that ‘ today’s society may be quite challenging for our children’.

You will recognise some of your own ingredients here, we have used your thoughts and voices! As you can see, having viewed these recipes we were delighted with the results. All deserved a mention! And collectively they are just incredible.

The next step: 

If you did not have a chance to join in or want to continue your discussions here is your chance, we would love to hear from you. Please remember that following this recipe will produce your own unique results, and these might differ every time!

With that in mind:

1. What could you produce from this recipe? The end results might amaze you and enhance your skills.
2. Do you have the key ingredients – a little time, bravery, reflection, and an open mind?
3. Remember, sharing your own thoughts, not only ignites your passion for learning it brings a lot to the learning of others too!
4. Can you keep the discussion alive and strive to improve your understanding of childhood?

An Invitation

Most importantly, remember to keep your fire for learning about childhood. Keep exploring innovative ideas and using these super ingredients, we are sure you will continue to surprise yourself. You can start by thinking about:

Who or what has inspired you?

Who would you invite to the conversation and why?

(This could include key people, thinkers, writers, practitioners. What have you read in the media, academic literature?)

Please use the comment box below to tell us more and keep the conversation going!

Sarah Jane Mukherjee, Research Associate

I’ve been at the OU since 2009 as a distance student, doctoral student, research assistant and tutor, and now I am a postdoctoral research associate.  Alongside working on OU modules, my current research revolves around reading for pleasure (RfP) and children’s dialogue.  In particular, I’m interested in investigating children’s language to understand their playful interactions and the opportunities for learning in play.  I have worked on a cross-cultural study into children’s and mothers’ conceptions of play and learning in five different countries, and my PhD explored children’s meaning making and learning in classroom role-play.

My ideal holiday destination is La Réunion, a French island in the Indian Ocean.  I studied there many years ago, and as a family we go back as often as we can to visit friends, hike in the sunny mountains, enjoy the beautiful waterfalls, relax on the beaches and eat ‘cari’, which is one of the typical dishes.

I have a number of books on the go at any one time.  I recently finished The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (as an audio book), Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones (kindle), Malamander by Thomas Taylor (children’s short novel) and far too many picture books to list, but my recent favourites include Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall; Jerome by Heart by Thomas Scotto and Olivier Tallec; It’s a no money day by Kate Milner.

In my spare time I love to spend time with my husband and our daughter and the rest of my family including my two young nephews and niece.  We have an allotment, on which we have mainly grown weeds this year, but there’s always next year….

 Carolyn Cooke, Academic Staff Tutor (Education, Childhood, Youth and Sport)

I am a Staff Tutor based in the North of Scotland. I have worked in education as a teacher and teacher educator, with my specialism being music education. I am passionate about what the whole education system can learn from Early Years, particularly the role of play in learning and in educational research. This is something I have  explored in my PhD. I have two children who I play and learn with every day.

 Thanks Carolyn. Can you tell us….

• The last book you read: The 91 Storey Treehouse with my son.
• Your ideal holiday destination: Somewhere with a view where I can watch the clouds and light change.
• What you do in your spare time: Growing as much veg as I can without the creepy crawls eating it first!

Dr Claire Saunders, Education Staff Tutor

I am director of PRAXIS (the Scholarship and Innovation Centre in WELS Faculty) and an Education Staff Tutor in the School of Education, Childhood, Youth and Sport. I started my career as a primary school teacher, moving into higher education in 2006. I work with Associate Lecturers on two Early Childhood modules, working closely with other members of the module teams to try to ensure students have the best possible learning experience. My teaching and research interests lie mainly in the area of the academic writing practices of both lecturers and students, fuelled by the firm belief that writing is a powerful and creative tool for communicating ideas.

Mrs Eleonora Teszenyi, Lecturer in Early Childhood

I joined The Open University in September 2019 and previously taught on both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees including the Masters programme in Early Years. Before entering Higher Education, I had worked in the early years sector for 19 years as an early years practitioner, early years teacher, Local Authority advisor and children centre teacher in one of the most disadvantaged areas of Leicestershire. Although working in Higher Education, I have remained close to practice: I am still involved with supporting early years practitioners, and my PhD study focuses on early childhood pedagogy and practice.

Thanks Eleonora. Can you tell us….

The last book you read: I always have at least two books on my bedside cabinet (often more), one of which is fiction. A novel I long to read to switch my brain off at the end of the day. But I must admit, at the write-up stage in my PhD, this feels rather like a luxury so often I pour over research books in preparation for the following day’s writing. Before you condemn me to be rather ‘sad’, let me confess to reading an easy-going novel during my summer leave. Nothing high-brow or particularly sophisticated (without wanting to offend the author), just ‘nice’.  It was by Delia Owens and the title is ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ and offered a bit of escapism.

Your ideal holiday destination: I would very much like to hike on the Inca Trail in Peru, starting from Chillca, up to the lost city of Machu Picchu. I am fascinated by ancient civilisations, although I cannot claim to know too much about them. It is more like an enthusiastic interest of a novice. Once I am in that part of the world, I’d like to travel around in South-America.

What you do in your spare time: Anything that is outdoors. Our family holidays are always about adventure and I love it all: sea kayaking, canoeing on white water, hiking, rock climbing, caving or skiing, they are all fun. I must admit, I am not too keen on biking, particularly not mountain biking.  I also love pottering in the garden, growing our food on our allotment, cooking it all in a cauldron on open fire… you get the picture. Wind in my hair, sun on my face, soaked by rain… I don’t mind but love the snow the most!

Dr Joanne Josephidou, Lecturer in Early Childhood

I joined the Open University in September 2019 but before this, I was a primary school teacher for many years before entering Higher Education, as a teaching fellow, in 2009. I taught on Initial Teacher Education programmes at the University of Cumbria before joining the Early Childhood Studies team at Canterbury Christ Church in September 2014.  I have taught on a variety of modules and have a particular interest in supporting students to develop early research skills. My PhD focused on appropriate pedagogies with young children and how practitioner gender may impact on these.  Currently, I am working collaboratively on a piece of research which focuses on babies’ and toddlers’ opportunities to engage with the outdoor environment and nature.

Thanks Jo. Now tell us…

The last book you read: I discovered Helen Dunmore recently and read lots of her books over the summer; I have really enjoyed them all.

Your ideal holiday destination: France or France or France – I just love it!

What you do in your spare time: I love spending time with my family; I have three sons who make me laugh, wind me up and help me to see the world in a different way.

Dr Lucy Rodriguez-Leon

I joined the Early Childhood Team in 2019 and I work on module E109, Exploring perspectives on young children’s lives and learning. As a former OU student at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, I feel particularly connected to The Open University. Before teaching in Higher Education, I worked at a state-maintained nursery school for 16 years. I still miss working with children, so I really enjoy hearing about our students’ experiences in their early childhood settings.

My PhD focused on early childhood literacies; more specifically, the research explored young children’s everyday encounters with written and multimodal texts, and how their experiences shape their understandings of themselves as readers and writers. I’m a member of the UK Literacy Association and co-convener of the Early Years Special Interest Group, where we advocate for broad and balanced approaches to early literacy education.  I am currently co-writing an online course on promoting reading for pleasure in the primary and EY classroom, which will be freely available on Open Learn in the Autumn.

What do you like to do in your time off?

One of my favourite places to visit is Northumberland, where I like to walk in the Cheviot hills and explore the ruins of Roman forts. It can be a bit wet and windy at times, but the wilderness and spectacular views are simply stunning.

What’s the last book you read? 

I’m currently reading ‘How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America’ by Clint Smith. It’s a hard hitting read, telling of the author’s experiences as he travels to plantations, memorials, cemeteries, museums and prisons connected with slavery in the USA.

What do you do in your spare time?

During lockdown, I discovered a love of gardening and now appreciate the phrase, ‘enjoying the garden’! However, I am a complete novice and have a lot to learn. I also enjoy cooking and dining out!

At this time of year, we like to introduce the team so that you can get to know us a bit better. There have been a few changes since last year….

Professor Jane Payler, Professor of Education (Early Years)

My research and publications, recognised internationally, focus on sociocultural perspectives on young children’s interactive learning processes, inter-professional practice, professional development of the early childhood workforce, and children’s positioning in research. I have researched, taught, examined, published and practised in early years education and care for over twenty-five years in three universities and two colleges. I am a former Chair of TACTYC: Association for Professional Development in Early Years and former Co-Director of the Children’s Research Centre at the OU. I have advised governments in the development of standards for graduate leaders in the early years, EYPS and EYT, contributed to numerous government consultations and developed a wide range of curricula for early childhood from vocational courses through to university doctoral level study.

At present, I am researching the experiences of children and young people with a parent in prison. 

Interests outside work: Painting, drawing, reading and walking. 

Favourite non-academic books I’ve read this year: Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell and Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. 

Dr Natalie Canning, Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood

My research is centred on children’s play, especially how children are empowered in play. I come from a play work and social work background, supporting children to explore personal, social and emotional development through play.  I have published within the field of professional development, children’s play, empowerment and creative spaces and have taught across various EC undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. I am co-convenor of the European EC and Education Special Interest Group in Outdoor Play and on the committee for TACTYC: Association for Professional Development in EY. I am also the co-director of the Children’s Research Centre at the OU.

Thanks Natalie. What do you like to do when you are not working?

My main interest outside of work is horses.  Over the years I have been lucky enough to own quite a few.  When I was a teenager, I tried out for the British Eventing youth team but now I am a lot older I do lower level competitions!  I do a bit of everything, dressage, show jumping and eventing.  In the picture I am at Crown Farm in the Cotswolds doing cross country on Romeo.  I have just bought a young horse called Albert who is very willing to learn.  I think horses are amazing.  They are really the only animal that lets you sit on them and allows you to do all sorts of things that must seem very strange to them.  They are half a ton of animal, yet they put complete trust in you to guide them around a course of jumps or do complicated movements in a relatively small space in a dressage arena.  We put them in vehicles and take them all over the country and usually they have a better wardrobe of rugs and accessories than the average human!

Karen Horsley, Lecturer in Early Childhood

I joined The Open University in 2015 as a Lecturer in Early Childhood. I contributed to the production of the new Early Childhood degree and I am the current Chair of E109. Prior to this I was a Lecturer in Early Childhood Studies (University of East London). I have worked in research and practice in a variety of early years settings. I have written for early childhood publications and presented at the European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA). I am currently undertaking a professional doctorate with young children from migrant backgrounds exploring their ‘funds of knowledge’ through participatory documentary photography.

Thanks Karen – can you tell us some fun facts about you?

Last book: Aunt Severe and the toy thieves (read with my daughter)

Holiday: somewhere with some sun, a nice view and something new to do (I was fortunate to swim with dolphins a few years ago!) Anywhere with time with my family (something funny or crazy usually happens!)

Favourite joke: What did one tree say to the other tree? …. Nothing it’s a tree! (Fav joke from my friend Fletcher aged 3)

John Parry, Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood

I am a Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood and have worked at the Open University since 2010. I have written material for a range of modules for students studying at the OU for both the Early Childhood and Primary qualifications. Before moving into Higher Education, I was a practitioner and teacher who had worked with young children and their families for over 25 years, for much of this time within Portage. The focus of my publications and research has been the inclusion of young children in their local pre-school settings and the early friendships between disabled children and their peers. My most recent work has been with Professor Jonathon Rix developing ‘In the Picture’, an approach to observing young children at play and engaging with their experiences.

 Thanks John. Can you tell us….

• The last book you read: ‘Machines Like Me’ Ian McEwan.
• Your favourite joke: Anything that Stewart Lee says.
• Your ideal holiday destination: Ashton Gate.
• What you do in your spare time: Record Collecting, record playing, record cleaning, record organising, record reviewing, record buying…basically anything involving records.

Thanks all! Join us w/b 13^th September to meet some more members of the Early Childhood  team….

This month our post is written by Kathleen Davies, one of our Early Childhood students. Thank you Kathleen; although you wrote it in Spring, we are sure that students and tutors alike will be able to relate to your metaphor as we approach the end of the academic year.

I walked up a mountain today. A really big one that had a summit stone at the top. I didn’t plan to; I only knew I wanted to go for a walk. What I had planned to do was a walk around a lake. Since Welsh government have lifted our ‘stay at home’ rule to ‘stay local’ I was able to visit a beauty spot nearby which is used by dog walkers and mountain bikers. It was a lovely spring morning; the ducks were happily swimming on the clear water in pairs. The lake was beautiful but smaller than I remembered. Then I spotted a yellow arrow showing a walking route and thought I’d take myself off in that direction to stretch my walk a bit further, I had the time.

Along the way there was a map board that showed the steep ascent route up the mountain. It just so happens that I’ve always wanted to go up there. At the top there are the remains of a medieval hill fort and you can see the form of it from all around in the local area where I live. It looks like a mound on the top of the mountain. I have looked up at it many times and thought about scaling it myself but just never had, though I knew people who had walked it. I should probably say, I’m not talking mountaineering here, it’s an accessible hike, which is just as well as I didn’t plan it.

I didn’t have my walking shoes on but I was wearing trainers so I thought that what I would do was to just start out and see how I went, I could turn around and come back the same way whenever I wanted. It was a steep climb on rough terrain, a mud track with loose rocks. I started to get a bit wary half way up as it was so quiet all around and I could see a wooded section ahead, but then a cyclist zoomed past on the road above my head and said hello as he went so that helped put me at ease. As I continued, I passed a few more fellow walkers, cyclists and runners who all shared a cordial hello. After the year we’ve had (let’s never mention 2020 again) it really cheered up my day.

I made it to what had looked like the top, (why is there always more top) and another friendly board enticing me to complete the last section, a “very steep” 1.2km more to reach the medieval hill fort. I knew I would have to do it, though I didn’t want to. The views from there were lovely as it was. I could really just go home and complete it another day. Also – road – other people were driving up to this point. Why hadn’t I just done that?! I began the last steep ascent; the board wasn’t over egging it at all. A man appeared over the crest of the hill and picking his way past me he said “it’s even windier at the top!”

Anyway, I made it to the top, the views of the valley all around were glorious. I could see all of the place I grew up in all the way down to the Severn estuary and the Severn bridge. The sun was breaking through the clouds in a really magnificent ‘you’ve just climbed a mountain’ sort of way. I took a load of photos and then walked up the steps right to the tippy top of the hill fort mound. And just as I reached the top, over from the other side came two walkers. We couldn’t even hear each other over the wind so I did a polite wave and descended the other side where I noticed a car park no more than say, 50m away!

I know comparing any sort of personal journey to climbing a mountain is the most over-baked thing ever, but getting home to catch up on some OU work, which so happened to be my reflective learning journal, I couldn’t help but see the parallels. You might not know what it takes to get there, but you’ll never find out unless you try, and you’ll feel awesome when you do it! Now every time I see that mound at the top of the mountain, I can say I’ve been up there and I know what it feels like.

by SarahJane Mukherjee

Concerns remain high about the impact of the pandemic on children’s education, and initiatives to assist children in ‘catch up’ remain under the spotlight. However, as we emerge from this latest period of lockdown, PlayFirstUK, a group of academics from different universities, has written to the education secretary, Gavin Williamson to suggest that focus be placed on children’s mental health, and instead of ‘catch up’ children be allowed to play with friends and be outside in a ‘Summer of Play’. In anticipation of a potential perceived play/learning dichotomy, they write, “This is not an either-or decision. Social connection and play offer myriad learning opportunities and are positively associated with children’s academic attainment and literacy.” Implicitly, PlayFirstUK highlights that literacy is not confined to learning phonics and building sentences.  Yet, one challenge is that while it is accepted that children learn through play, it is not always immediately obvious how or what they learn in relation to literacy.

Here I outline how role-play offers opportunities for literacy learning. The research I draw on, taken from my own PhD study, on was conducted in a classroom with small groups of 4-5 year old children, yet the beauty of role-play is that it is unconstrained by location and takes place in gardens, kitchens, dens, cardboard boxes and under tables.  Furthermore, expensive and purposely designed props are not required.  The heart of role-play is the social connection and language interaction between the children. Typified by dialogue performed as a character, i.e. where the children ‘are’ the doctor, patient, shopkeeper, there is also language organising the role-play (who takes which role, direction of the action, comments on props).  Also present is language sparked by the play but not directly related.  Characteristically the children move seamlessly between these functions and the interwoven threads together provide a rich and dynamic linguistic context through which children develop literacy.  So, what is it that role-play offers in terms of literacy?

With the availability of pencils and paper, children will write a shopping list or capture details of a patient at a doctors’ surgery.  Emergent literacy is well-established in the literature, and in addition, these moments of literacy are accompanied by the children talking about the writing.  Thus, role-play becomes a meaningful context for children to write and talk about writing.

While not as visible as writing nor the immediate focus of early literacy programmes, the development of semantic fields, cause and effect and decontextualised/ abstract language are important for a child’s developing literacy and ‘academic’ language more broadly, and these aspects are found by paying close attention to the language interaction.

Semantic fields are foundational in a child’s development of their vocabulary.  Through the linguistic context of role-play, a child has the opportunity to do more than memorise a new sequence of sounds, but learn how new words are embedded within semantic fields and how they fit within particular grammatical structures and collocations. Learning the word thermometer in the context of a doctor’s surgery, a child develops their understanding of the semantic field around medical equipment and the opportunity to be able to use the word for themselves in this context.

Secondly, the ability to express and understand cause-effect relations in language is of huge importance for the expression of academic meaning.    In role-play children have opportunities to negotiate meanings and relationships between ideas and justify their position to their peers. Children use and practise the language of cause and effect to justify their adherence to their own guidelines for the play or justifying particular roles.

Thirdly, props (whether realistic or not) appear to act as a bridge between the here and now, towards the expression of abstract concepts, important for later literacy.  Opportunities open for the children to shift their understanding from the contextualised nature of the item e.g. a thermometer, towards a more abstract explanation of the implications for a high temperature.

While potentially reassuring to understand that ‘literacy’ may be happening in role-play, more reassuring would be to understand how these moments of learning are created.

Opportunities for learning are created by the children’s dialogic interaction through repetition.  Sometimes subtle lexicogrammatical shifts within the same turn are seen where the children practise, thereby experimenting with their developing language.

In a group the children position themselves as experts and treat each other as such.  Their expertise is seen through the children both offering new information to the group and responding to their peers’ questions as they explore the props and position themselves as an ‘expert’ doctor, shopkeeper or restaurant owner.

Thirdly and notably, children create long language exchanges.  Often prompted by a  question, the children co-construct knowledge over a series of turns.  Looked at this way, exchanges where the children do not quite achieve a ‘correct’ answer are also of value.

In summary, even if language in role-play does not quite yet adhere to conventional grammatical rules, or if there appears to be a disagreement about a prop or action, or children’s responses to questions are incorrect, the children learn important literacy skills from and in collaboration with each other as they learn language, through language and about language in the most social of all play, role-play.

To round up our final reports from the recently attended ‘Bicycles, Bricks, Vision & Determination’ conference run by Sightlines, here are  reflections from Jackie Musgrave, Karen Horsley and Lucy Rodriguez-Leon. You will gather from reading their feedback that the conference proved not only to be informative but also a thought -provoking and, in many ways,  empowering experience for the team.

‘Loris Malaguzzi’s pedagogical influence and contemporary importance’ – presented by Professor Peter Moss, reflections from Jackie Musgrave.

Every time I hear Peter Moss speak, I always feel sorry for him.  The reason for this is that he is usually delivering similar messages about the importance of Early Childhood and how it has been even more overlooked  over the last 10 years or so, for instance the situation in relation to the pay and status of the workforce, the lack of commitment from government to invest and so on. So each time I hear Peter speak he sounds more despairing of the situation. However, I was intrigued when I attended this conference because he sounded really hopeful.

Peter spoke about Malaguzzi’s influence on Early Childhood on what would have been his 100^th birthday, well actually 101^st because the conference was meant to happen last year. I am always fascinated by the historical context of issues and this was explained very clearly in the presentation.  Reggio Emilia approaches emerged in response to the influences of fascism in Italy following the second world war.  Malaguzzi was conscious of the dangers of people conforming and obeying the fascist rule, and especially aware of the impact on children. Consequently he developed a vison of children thinking for themselves which influenced his pedagogical approach.  Therefore, the Reggio Emilia philosophy was born out of adversity and the desire by Malaguzzi to recognise the richness of children, their 100 languages and to remind us that children are citizens with rights.  He recognised that societies can rob children of their 100 languages.

Peter highlighted, how. 75 years after the end of the second world war, we are now in another global crisis which is curtailing children’s rights in a similar way; children are being denied their right to education, health and play. This is where I got really hooked in; Peter stated that crisis can bring opportunity to help shape and create positive impact.  He reminded us of Malaguzzi’s beliefs about the importance of language, not just for children, but for all of us.  He urged us to use affirmative language in the words we select.  I took this to mean that we can use this opportunity to change the discourse around children, avoiding deficit language, promoting the affirmative, engendering a sense of hope, encouraging us all to take responsibility, demonstrating the power of the collective.

So  how can we as Early Childhood @ the Open University use language to make a positive impact for the children we indirectly work for? Via twitter, in our writing and research, at conferences, within and beyond The Open University?  Let’s discuss….

‘Democratic alternatives in education: Provocations from the Portuguese MEM (Modern School Movement)’ – presented by Dr Diana Sousa, reflections by Karen Horsley.

Diana began with her own Early Childhood memories (childhood photographs) as a time when she experienced the freedom to be, discover herself and begin to understand the values of democracy. She was part of the first generation of young children in Portugal to experience kindergarten, which were introduced as part of the democratic shift in education at the fall of the country’s dictatorship in 1974. So like Reggio, the movimento da escola moderna (MEM)/ Modern School Movement emerged from the mid 60’s from the ‘jolt’ of dictatorship.

MEM was started by 6 teachers in the mid -1960s who began exchanging their ideas about democratic education at a time when such ideas were supressed by the dictatorial powers that were in control of Portugal. It has similar beginnings to the developments in Reggio in recognising that democracy does not evolve naturally, its development cannot be taken for granted but requires nurturing through participation.

As a pedagogical movement MEM is informed by the thinking of Freinet (cooperative pedagogy); Helen Keller (inclusive practices), Vygotsky, Bruner and Freire. Teachers are regarded as both actors for social change as well as being learners. They interrogate the idea of democracy and also whether children, parents and professionals have the freedom they need to express who they are and who they want to be within the Early Childhood Education community. Everyone’s participation is integral.

Diana then took us through how the principles of MEM are enacted in Portuguese early childhood settings. Key points were:

• An emphasis on intergenerational groupings
• Flexible use of space organised by the participants
• Each morning the children’s council meets where children decide what they will do for the day
• There is rich ongoing project work – child led with members of the community coming in.
• Emphasis on slow pedagogy- this level of participation needs time
• Rich texts and documentation by the children are used to make their experiences visible – ‘texts’ include drawing, writing and thinking.

Diana ended the presentation with a thought- provoking quote from Sousa Santos

‘Alternatives are not lacking in the world. What is indeed missing is an alternative thinking of alternatives’ (Sousa Santos, 2019, online)

‘Truths and Transformation – where now and how?’ Panel and Discussion with Peter Moss, Karyn Callaghan and others, reflections by Lucy Rodriguez-Leon.

I attended this final session of the Sightlines conference. It was really inspiring to participate in discussions with practitioners here in the UK, and from across the globe. The session was mostly breakout group discussions, for delegates to pick-up the themes and topics from previous sessions such as the ‘right to subjectivity’, children’s competencies and democratic education.

There were a few key take-away messages that caught my attention.

• The power of community within Early Childhood Education Care. The sector needs to work together to develop a powerful collective voice. The incredible work in Italian communities and in Portugal are all examples of what can happen when a few women come together with conviction and purpose.
• Trust should be reciprocal – When children come to ECEC settings, they place an enormous amount of trust in practitioners, trust that they will be kind, fair, keep them safe and provide for their physical, social and emotional needs. In return, we need to trust children, trust that they are the experts in their own lives and capable of seeking out the experiences that will enable them to develop.
• Reggio is not a ‘one-off’ – these movements are widespread across Italy and other countries. There are numerous examples of ‘doing things differently’ – and examples of community approaches to ECEC that sit within a global progressive education movement.
• Collectively, there can be a push-back against the accountability culture and a change in perspective of what actually matters for young children. Much of what is measured, doesn’t matter, and what really matters, often can’t be measured.
• Optimism and invitation – antagonism between the sector and policy makers is not helpful. As a community, we can ‘invite’ wider society to see things differently and move forward in small steps.

It was notable that many of the themes discussed and debated aligned with perspectives in our Early Childhood modules (E109, E110, and E229) which reminded me that, as the Higher Education provider for so many EC students, we really are integral to the ECEC community and sector.