Early Years Settings: Diversity and Appropriate Practices

1
Early Years Settings Diversity and Appropriate
Practices

• www.multiverse.ac.uk

2
Aims of the presentation

• To question and challenge the prevalent and often
  dominating developmental perspectives in early
  years settings

• To argue that contemporary socio-cultural theory
  has more to offer in understanding all young
  children in settings and schools

3
With the person sitting next to you consider at
what age is it developmentally appropriate (in
terms of coordination and judgement) to allow
young children to handle sharp knives safely?
4
An Efe baby (11mths) in Democratic Republic of
Congo cuts a fruit skilfully with a machete
(Rogoff, 2003, p. 6)
5
Rogoff, B. (2003) Cultural Nature of Human
Development

• Likewise, Fore (New Guinea) infants handle
  knives and fire safely by the time they are able
  to walk (Sorenson, 1979). Aka parents of Central
  Africa teach 8- to 10-month old infants to throw
  small spears and use small pointed digging sticks
  and miniature axes with sharp metal blades. (p.
  5)

6
This raises questions about developmentally
appropriate practices because

• Human development is a cultural process.
• Children develop as participants in cultural
  communities.
• Cultural communities have different cultural
  practices and these have different value systems,
  traditions and histories. Over time these change.
• What is appropriate depends on childrens
  experiences.

7
What exactly do we mean by Developmentally
Appropriate Practices? (See also Bredekamp and
Copple, 1997)
8
Developmentally Appropriate Practices and Stage
Theory

• Martin Luther (1532)
• My son Hans is about to enter upon his seventh
  year, which is always climacteric, that is, a
  time of change. People always change every
  seventh year.
• (cited in Walsh, 2005, p.41)

9
Theoretical views

• Froebels divine laws of development
• 0-8 early childhood ? childrens intellectual
  capability limited compared to older children
• 8 later childhood
• Piaget, Gesell, Freud and Erikson argued that
  children develop through sequential stages which
  are predictable and universal.

10
Piagets Stages

• 1. Sensorimotor, 2. Preoperational,
  3. Concrete operational and 4. Formal
  Operational (formal abstract thinking)
• Young children are seen as developmentally
  different from older children and adults.
• Young children are thought to learn differently
  from older children and adults.

11
Critiques of Stage Theory

• Donaldson (1979) Childrens Minds and Gelman
  and Baillergeon (1983) A Review of Some
  Piagetian Concepts - both demonstrated serious
  weaknesses in Piagetian theory and in stage
  theory in general.

12
Critiques from the socio-cultural perspective

• Developmental stages are always culture-specific.
  
• Within stage theory some children may be viewed
  as lacking something as they do not fit in with
  the dominant model. They may be viewed as being
  behind their development, or slow learners,
  or coming from deprived homes.

13
When considering children from diverse
backgrounds, stage theory tends to lead to a
deficit-model.
14
But in many early years settings

• developmentally appropriate practices are still
  viewed as being worth striving for
• developmentally appropriate practices are still
  characterised by different stages of development.

15
A child is viewed as...

• full of potential, naturally curious, and eager
  to learn
• active, outgoing and communicative
• independent, autonomous, and able to show
  initiative
• capable of selecting and sustaining self-chosen
  games and activities
• able to learn through play and exploration.
• (Brooker, 2005, p. 118, emphasis added)

16
Children from diverse backgrounds

• What counts as for example showing initiative
  varies between different cultural practices. The
  Efe baby showed a high level of initiative in
  terms of preparing food.
• Initial assessment in early years settings tends
  to award much lower scores for some groups of
  children than others.

17
Initial Assessment

• Robertson (2007)
• In one Reception class all British-Pakistani
  children were placed in low ability groups in
  which they remained throughout KS1 irrespective
  of their actual achievement.

• Brooker (2002 2005)
• In one Reception class British- Bangladeshi
  children were awarded low scores for initiative
  and they were identified as timid and
  dependent.

18
Why are some groups of children considered to be
more timid or dependent than other groups?
19
Because what counts as timid and dependent
varies between different cultural practices.

• Different cultural groups and families have
  different expectations of children and different
  views of childhood.
• Practitioners tend to view children within the
  dominant English, middle-class perspective.

20
British-Bangladeshi families

• Valued their childrens adaptation to, and
  participation in, the family A good girl,
  always helping and Likes to put his hand in
  mummys hand.
• Ensured that children shared time, space and
  activities of household members of all ages.
• Aimed to cultivate interdependence between
  different family members, rather than
  individualism or independence. (Brooker, 2005)

21
British-English families

• Characterised their children as obsessed with
  Teletubbies or good at drawing or a tom-boy,
  always prefers to be out on her bike and get
  muddy.
• Aimed to cherish their childrens childishness,
  that they had time, space and a life-style on
  their own, and behaved in child-specific ways.
  (Brooker, 2005)

22
Socio-Cultural Theory

• Accepts that individual development must be
  understood in, and cannot be separated from, its
  social context.
• Accepts that individual childs efforts and
  development cannot be separated from the
  different people and the kinds of activities s/he
  has been engaging with.
• Offers different types of insights that connect
  with childrens learning contexts and their
  families and cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

23
Appropriate Practices in Early Years

• Practitioners accept and acknowledge that
  different children have different funds of
  knowledge (Moll, et al 1992).
• In developing appropriate practices for early
  years settings the idea that whole cultural
  groups of children have lower achievement than
  other groups is rejected.
• Culturally reflective and sensitive practices
  replace developmentally appropriate practices.

24
Leena RobertsonMiddlesex University