Abstract
Recently, and especially in early childhood education, there has been a transition from understanding child perspective to understanding children’s perspective. Taking children’s perspective as a foundational starting point, we explore and identify moments that children find important, meaningful, and positive in their daily life at the context of preprimary education. We use empirical evidence from our research situated within the cultural context of Finnish early childhood education where children documented their preprimary education experiences with digital cameras and reflected upon them in joint discussions with their peers and researchers. We discuss to what extent these documentation and reflection practices can be used as tools for understanding children’s perspective to meaningful moments in the Finnish preprimary context and what implications this kind of approach would set for curriculum, curriculum assessment, and curriculum development.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ben-Arieh, A. (2005). Where are the children? Children’s role in measuring and monitoring their well-being. Social Indicators Research, 74, 573–596.
Calderhead, J. (1981). Stimulated recall: A method for research on teaching. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 5, 211–217.
Cappello, M. (2005). Photo interviews: Eliciting data through conversations with children. Field Methods, 17, 170–182.
Christensen, P., & James, A. (Eds.). (2008). Research with children: Perspectives and practices. London: Routledge.
Clark, C. D. (1999). The autodriven interview: A photographic viewfinder into children’s experiences. Visual Sociology, 14, 39–50.
Clark, A. (2005). Young children as protagonists and the role of participatory, visual methods in engaging multiple perspectives. Early Child Development and Care, 175, 489–505.
Collier Jr., J. (1957). Photography in anthropology: A report on two experiments. American Anthropologist, 59, 843–859.
Cook, T., & Hess, E. (2007). What the camera sees and from whose perspective: Fun methodologies for engaging children in enlightening adults. Childhood, 14, 29–45.
Core Curriculum for Pre-Primary Education in Finland (2010). National Board of Education.
Einarsdottir, J. (2007). Research with children: Methodological and ethical challenges. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 15, 197–211.
Fattore, T., Mason, J., & Watson, E. (2007). Children’s conceptualisation(s) of their well-being. Social Indicators Research, 80, 5–29.
Fleer, M. (2003). Early childhood education as an evolving ‘Community of Practice’ or as lived ‘Social Reproduction’: Researching the ‘taken-for-granted’. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 4, 64–79.
Fleer, M., & Quiñones, G. (2009). A cultural-historical reading of “children as researchers”. In M. Fleer, M. Hedegaard, & J. Tudge (Eds.), World yearbook of education 2009. Childhood studies and the impact of globalization: Policies and practices at global and local levels (pp. 86–107). New York: Routledge.
Gonzalez, N., Moll, L. C., & Amanti, C. (2005). Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in households and classrooms. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Greeno, J. G. (2006). Authoritative, accountable positioning and connected, general knowing: Progressive themes in understanding transfer. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 15, 537–547.
Harper, D. (2002). Talking about pictures: A case for photo elicitation. Visual Studies, 17, 13–26.
Hedges, H., Cullen, J., & Jordan, B. (2011). Early years curriculum: Funds of knowledge as a conceptual framework for children’s interests. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 43, 185–205.
Herrenkohl, L. R., & Guerra, M. R. (1998). Participant structures, scientific discourse, and student engagement in fourth grade. Cognition and Instruction, 16, 433–475.
Jordan, B., & Henderson, A. (1995). Interaction analysis: Foundations and practice. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 4, 39–103.
Kumpulainen, K., & Lipponen, L. (2010). Productive interaction as agentic participation in dialogic inquiry. In C. Howe & K. Littleton (Eds.), Educational dialogues (pp. 48–63). London: Taylor and Francis.
Kumpulainen, K., & Renshaw, P. (2007). Cultures of learning. International Journal of Educational Research, 46, 109–115.
Kumpulainen, K., Järvelä, S., & Lipponen, L. (2010). Towards children’s efficacious agency in formal and informal contexts: A research project of the Academy of Finland. Available at http://www.aka.fi/fi/A/Tutkimusohjelmat/kaynnissa/SKIDI-KIDS/Hankkeet/Lasten-pystyvyys-ja-sinnikkyys-tutkimuksen-kohteena/. Accessed 1 Oct 2012.
Kumpulainen, K., Lipponen, L., Hilppö, J. A., & Mikkola, A. I. (2013). Building on the positive in children’s lives: A co-participatory study on the social construction of children’s sense of agency. Early Child Development and Care. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2013.778253
Lipponen, L., & Kumpulainen, K. (2011). Acting as accountable authors: Creating interactional spaces for agency work in teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27, 812–819.
Mitchell, C. J. (1984). Typicality and the case study. In R. F. Ellens (Ed.), Ethnographic research: A guide to general conduct (pp. 238–241). New York: Academic Press.
National Curriculum Guidelines on early childhood education and care in Finland (2005). Oppaita 56. Helsinki: Stakes.
Qvortrup, J., Bardy, M., Sgritta, G., & Wintersberger, H. (1994). Childhood matters: Social theory, practice and politics. Aldershot: Avebury.
Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Roth, W.-M. (2005). Doing qualitative research: Praxis of method. Rotterdam: Sense.
Shier, H. (2001). Pathways to participation: Openings, opportunities and obligations. Children & Society, 15, 107–117.
Smith, A. B. (2002). Supporting participatory rights: Contributions from sociocultural theory. International Journal of Children’s Rights, 10, 73–88.
Smith, A., Duncan, J., & Marshall, K. (2005). Children’s perspective on their learning: Exploring methods. Early Child Development and Care, 175, 473–488.
Sommer, D., Pramling Samuelsson, I., & Hundeide, K. (2010). Child perspectives and children’s perspectives in theory and practice. Milton Keynes: Springer.
Spyrou, S. (2011). The limits of children’s voices: From authenticity to critical, reflexive representation. Childhood, 18, 151–165.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher mental processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Acknowledgments
The research reported in this article has been funded by the Academy of Finland, SKIDI-KIDS research program (project no: 135138). We would like to thank Jaakko Hilppö for his support in data collection and his analysis of the empirical data of our research project.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lipponen, L., Kumpulainen, K., Paananen, M. (2018). Children’s Perspective to Curriculum Work: Meaningful Moments in Finnish Early Childhood Education. In: Fleer, M., van Oers, B. (eds) International Handbook of Early Childhood Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-0927-7_65
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-0927-7_65
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-024-0925-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-024-0927-7
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)