Abstract
This paper examines the significance of a ‘look’ in infant–teacher dialogues in an early education and care centre in New Zealand. Drawing on Bakhtin’s principle of ‘visual surplus’ video recordings of two infants’, aged under 1 year of age, interactions with their teacher and teacher interpretations of these interactions were analysed in terms of the time it took for an infant to be ‘noticed’. The results revealed that teachers responded to infants’ initiations significantly faster when a ‘look’ accompanied verbal initiation than when it did not, while the length of the interaction did not depend on whether or not a ‘look’ was used to initiate an interaction. Different types of ‘looks’ (a gaze/glance/watch) were found to generate different responses and were given different values by teachers. Results also highlight the fact that ‘look’ initiations are often nested within language sequences that take place in a larger dialogic space of adults and peers. The findings point to the significance of the ‘work of the eye’ in understanding the complex nature of communications that occur between adults and infants in early childhood education settings.
Résumé
Cet étude examine l’importance d’un ‘regard’ dedans les dialogues entre petits enfants et enseignants dans un centre d’éducation de la petite enfance et de la garde de petits enfants en Nouvelle-Zélande. Selon le principe de Bakhtin concernant un ‘excédent de vision’ on a analysé des interactions filmées de deux enfants, âgé de moins d’un an, et aussi des interactions avec leur enseignant et les interprétations des enseignants de celles-ci. Les interactions ont été analysées selon le temps qu’il a fallu pour qu’on remarque que l’enfant employait un ‘regard.’ Les résultats ont révélé que les enseignants ont répondu sensiblement plus vite aux déclenchements des enfants quand un ‘regard’ était accompagné d’un déclencheur verbal, par rapport à l’absence d’un regard, tandis que la longueur de l’interaction ne dépend pas de si oui ou non un ‘regard’ a été utilisé pour initier une interaction. On a trouvé que les types différents de ‘regard’ (regard fixe/coup d’œil/regard) ont généré les réponses différentes et ont été donnés par les enseignants des valeurs différentes. Les résultats soulignent aussi le fait que le déclenchement d’un ‘regard’ se trouve souvent dans des séquences de langue qui se produisent au sein d’un espace dialogique plus élargi de leurs pairs et d’adultes. L’étude conclut que ‘l’activité oculaire’ est importante pour comprendre la nature complexe des communications entre les adultes et les enfants dans les contextes de l’éducation de la petite enfance.
Resumen
Este artículo examina el significado de la ‘mirada’ en los diálogos entre bebé y profesor en un centro de educación preescolar y guardería de Nueva Zelanda. Con base en el principio de ‘superávit visual’ de Bakthin se analizaron las grabaciones de video de dos bebés, menores de un año de edad, en sus interacciones con el profesorado y las interpretaciones que el profesorado hacían de estas interacciones en términos del tiempo que le llevaba al bebé ‘hacerse notar’. Los resultados revelaron que el profesorado respondía a los inicios de la interacción de los bebés significativamente de forma más rápida cuando el inicio verbal venía acompañado de una ‘mirada’ que cuando no sucedía así, mientras que el tiempo de la interacción no dependía de si era o no usada la ‘mirada’ para iniciar una interacción. Se descubrieron diferentes tipos de miradas (fija/de soslayo/observadora) que generaron diferentes respuestas y a las que el profesorado otorgó diferentes valores. Los resultados muestran también el hecho de que los inicios de interacción con la ‘mirada’ son a menudo acompañados de secuencias de lenguaje que tienen lugar en un espacio dialógico mayor de adultos e iguales. Los hallazgos apuntan a la importancia del ‘empleo de la vista’ para comprender la naturaleza compleja de las comunicaciones que se producen entre adultos y bebés en el marco de la educación preescolar.
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Acknowledgments
Sincere thanks to the teachers and infants who allowed us to generate the rich data and associated insights that underpin this paper. In addition, we are grateful to WMIER and University of Waikato for the support of summer scholarships spanning 2 years, which allowed us to linger in the data for long enough to recognise the important ideas that underpin this paper.
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White, E.J., Redder, B. & Peter, M. The Work of the Eye in Infant Pedagogy: A Dialogic Encounter of ‘Seeing’ in an Education and Care Setting. IJEC 47, 283–299 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-015-0139-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-015-0139-8