There is a growing body of literature that recognizes the importance of outdoor learning spaces in educational practice with children. However, previous studies of the outdoor learning spaces have omitted to address the young children’s perspectives on the outdoor environments that they experience as a part of the Forest School’s educational approach. Research on the subject has been mostly restricted to an adult perspective. Furthermore, the previously published studies are limited to Scandinavian countries and available in Scandinavian languages and, therefore, not easily accessible to an international audience. The aim of the present dissertation project is to explore young children’s (aged 3-6 years) voices on their experience, sense-making, and understanding of the educational space of a forest. A qualitative research paradigm was employed to explore the components that characterize children’s perception of the outdoor educational space. Ethnographic research methods (participants observation, informal conversation and material collection) were used to investigate children’s outdoor activities performed in two Italian preschools: a kindergarten outdoor oriented school and a Forest School. The collected materials (fieldnotes, interviews, and children’s drawings) were processed using a six-steps Thematic Analysis with the aim to gain a complex account of the data. The results indicate that the way children use, interact and, confer a meaning to their experience in the woods are represented by the following themes: Type of Place Attended, Nature Engagement, Relationship with the Woods, Responsibility and Risk, Imagination, Emotional Responses, Affordances, Relationships with Others, Discovery and Experimentation, Nature Education, Concerns for Nature, and Learnings Connected to the Curriculum.These results have provided a deeper insight on the children’s experience of the outdoor learning space of a forest. Moreover, the empirical findings in this study contributed to provide a new understanding of how children bond with the natural world and how they behave and experience it. Taking into account the exploratory nature of the present thesis, future research should further address the children’s perspectives on the outdoor education space, the forest. Furthermore, it would be interesting to investigate if the cognitive, emotional, and social resources and environmental attitudes developed by children in the forest as outdoor educational space are strictly intertwined with this particular environment or if they can be realized in more a conventional school setting.

De riskfaktorer som kan mätas eller avgöras i förskolan kan bara delvis förutsäga omfattningen av kommande lässvårigheter. Dessutom finns en påtaglig ärftlig komponent som sannolikt påverkar omfattningen av behovet av undervisningsinsats. De faktorer som kan ge en antydan om kommande lässvårigheter och som en förskolepedagog enkelt kan skapa lekar kring och bedöma är: RAN, förmågan att kunna skriva det egna namnet, hittepåord och bokstäver, koncentrationssvårigheter, finmotorisk koordination och kanske förmågan att uttala nonsensord. Pojkar har en högre risk. För att öka möjligheten att tidigt identifiera förskolebarn i riskzonen för kommande lässvårigheter skulle lästräning kunna påbörjas i förskoleklass (6-års-klass). Detta gäller oavsett om barnet har läs-svårigheter eller ej. De valda metoderna för läsinlärning bör vara olika i början av lästräningen jämfört med längre upp i åldrarna. Befintlig forskning tyder på att barn som börjar lära sig läsa i första hand behöver träna fonologisk medvetenhet och att phonics är en viktig metod i denna träning, men att ’hjärnans fonologiska mognad’ gör nyttan tveksam för barn yngre än 6 år – särskilt om dessa barn är pojkar. Spännvidden av orsaker, och att läsförmågan både kan förbättras och försämras över tid, tyder dock på att riskidentifiering i förskolan inte räcker till och att det sannolikt enda sättet att säkerställa adekvat utbildning till barn med lässvårigheter är kontinuerliga och tätt återkommande mätningar av hur väl barn tar till sig grundskoleundervisningen i läsning. Genom mätningarna kan utbildningen löpande justeras och anpassas till barnets behov här och nu. Över huvud taget uppvisar resultaten från tvillingstudier och från longitudinella studier att lästillägnandet har stora likheter med träning i sporter och musikinstrument: först måste grunden nötas in, varefter förmågan senare förfinas genom tålmodig och allt svårare upprepning. Detta är än viktigare för barn med lässvårigheter. Den fortlöpande försämringen av PISA-resultaten kommer inte att kunna brytas av åtgärder i förskolan eller genom systematisk satsning på phonics, utan det handlar om den politiska viljan finns inom det svenska skolväsendet för att ge alla barn samma chans i livet.

As state-funded Pre-K programs in elementary schools continue to grow, elementary principals are increasingly responsible for supporting, supervising, and leading these programs. Therefore, examining elementary principals' early childhood leadership competencies and the factors influencing them may help understand and improve their experiences as early childhood education (ECE) leaders. This explanatory sequential mixed methods study examined the ECE leadership of Tennessee public elementary school principals in two phases. In the quantitative phase, statewide surveys were used to collect data from 67 principals. The survey comprised 51 items assessing nine ECE leadership competencies, synthesized from statements of leading ECE and elementary education organizations. The survey's face and content validity were established, and its construct validity was confirmed through exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Items within each subscale were highly correlated, with coefficients ranging from 0.6 to 0.9. Besides, reliability was assessed using Cronbach's α, which ranged from .815 to .939. The quantitative findings revealed that public elementary principals may lack ECE backgrounds. Moreover, most public elementary principals were responsible for state-funded Pre-K programs, but their responsibilities differed widely. Furthermore, public elementary principals may need varying levels of support and development in ECE leadership competencies. The inferential analysis found that receiving ECE content or experience during principal training may not significantly influence their perceived need for these competencies. However, receiving professional development opportunities focused on leading ECE programs may impact certain aspects of their perceived need. In the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six participants from the first phase. The qualitative findings identified two themes. The first theme consisted of factors that support ECE leadership competencies and experiences. The second theme included factors needed to enhance principals' ECE leadership competencies and experiences. Both quantitative and qualitative results were integrated to explain the quantitative results. The study implications, limitations, and future research areas were then discussed. This study adds to the ongoing efforts to bridge the gap between ECE and elementary education. It highlights the significance of supporting elementary principals in becoming competent ECE leaders who can enhance the quality of state-funded Pre-K programs and sustain their positive impacts through the following grades.

This dissertation explores how women kindergarten teachers in Pakistan understand the concept of gender as evident from their own reflections of their life experiences and from their interaction with their students. Early childhood education and gender equality in education are critical policy issues in Pakistan. Women pre-primary teachers have received little specific attention and little is known about their experiences. Seven women kindergarten teachers from one co-educational, private, English-medium school in the urban city of Karachi, Pakistan were involved in this mixed-method study. Multiple methods were used, namely, life history interviews with the women teachers, classroom observations of their teaching practice and interactions with girls and boys, and document analysis. Data were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed. The findings were presented and discussed through the five nested interrelated structures – microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem and chronosystem - of Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model of human development. Study findings reveal that the family and school are critical microsystems that have shaped the women kindergarten teachers’ understanding of gender in terms of possibilities and impossibilities for girls and boys, women and men within the norms of the broader patriarchal macrosystem. Throughout their lives across the chronosystem, they have had to negotiate multiple positions in their patriarchal extended families, schools, and, to some extent, the larger community in response to social change across diverse geographical spaces. Compromise and conformity have formed much of how they have understood their role and position as women in this patriarchal context. As women and as kindergarten teachers, they are doubly disadvantaged. They have been inadequately prepared to take up positions as pre-primary teachers. Nevertheless, their developing knowledge of teaching young children based on their practice and in-service training in a school with a positive outlook towards teaching has led to a more professional perspective of themselves and their careers. They are committed to teaching, but face the challenge of coping with their professional and familial demands. Often times, they draw upon their religion for strength and to make sense of their gendered experiences. Tensions are evident in their understanding of gender, particularly in relation to their own children and their kindergarten students, about following ascribed gender norms or allowing for more change in tradition in a context being rapidly influenced by globalization and socio-economic change. For the most part, their interaction with their students reflected their internalization of dominant patriarchal values and their active role in perpetuating them. Nevertheless, their gendered teaching practice has also presented possibilities for change in their unconscious and, occasionally conscious, attempts to push gender boundaries towards more equitable gender relationships in this patriarchal context. This study is significant for bringing to the fore women kindergarten teachers’ lived experiences to provide a dimension of education which has gone largely unexamined locally and globally, and which, in the context of Pakistan, are critical to consider in light of issues related to quality, access, and gender equity in early childhood education.

This dissertation explores how women kindergarten teachers in Pakistan understand the concept of gender as evident from their own reflections of their life experiences and from their interaction with their students. Early childhood education and gender equality in education are critical policy issues in Pakistan. Women pre-primary teachers have received little specific attention and little is known about their experiences. Seven women kindergarten teachers from one co-educational, private, English-medium school in the urban city of Karachi, Pakistan were involved in this mixed-method study. Multiple methods were used, namely, life history interviews with the women teachers, classroom observations of their teaching practice and interactions with girls and boys, and document analysis. Data were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed. The findings were presented and discussed through the five nested interrelated structures – microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem and chronosystem - of Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model of human development. Study findings reveal that the family and school are critical microsystems that have shaped the women kindergarten teachers’ understanding of gender in terms of possibilities and impossibilities for girls and boys, women and men within the norms of the broader patriarchal macrosystem. Throughout their lives across the chronosystem, they have had to negotiate multiple positions in their patriarchal extended families, schools, and, to some extent, the larger community in response to social change across diverse geographical spaces. Compromise and conformity have formed much of how they have understood their role and position as women in this patriarchal context. As women and as kindergarten teachers, they are doubly disadvantaged. They have been inadequately prepared to take up positions as pre-primary teachers. Nevertheless, their developing knowledge of teaching young children based on their practice and in-service training in a school with a positive outlook towards teaching has led to a more professional perspective of themselves and their careers. They are committed to teaching, but face the challenge of coping with their professional and familial demands. Often times, they draw upon their religion for strength and to make sense of their gendered experiences. Tensions are evident in their understanding of gender, particularly in relation to their own children and their kindergarten students, about following ascribed gender norms or allowing for more change in tradition in a context being rapidly influenced by globalization and socio-economic change. For the most part, their interaction with their students reflected their internalization of dominant patriarchal values and their active role in perpetuating them. Nevertheless, their gendered teaching practice has also presented possibilities for change in their unconscious and, occasionally conscious, attempts to push gender boundaries towards more equitable gender relationships in this patriarchal context. This study is significant for bringing to the fore women kindergarten teachers’ lived experiences to provide a dimension of education which has gone largely unexamined locally and globally, and which, in the context of Pakistan, are critical to consider in light of issues related to quality, access, and gender equity in early childhood education.

Despite the rapid proliferation of assistive technology implementation, studies have revealed that a number of professionals that provide assistive technology services do not have adequate competencies to recommend and deliver assistive technologies in school settings. The purpose of the study was to examine the competencies of assistive technology specialists in Florida K-12 public schools, and identify training opportunities that may have helped them achieve professional competence in the evaluation and provision of assistive technology devices and services across AT service providers from different preparations. The study applied quantitative and qualitative methods to determine answers to the following six research questions: (1) to what extent does the perceived level of AT knowledge differ among AT specialists from different occupations in the Florida public school setting, (2) to what extent does the perceived level of AT skills differ among AT specialists from different occupations in the Florida public school setting, (3) what are the AT specialists’ perceptions about their AT knowledge and skill levels, (4) what common competency sets are needed for the AT specialist, regardless of their occupational role, (5) what are the training opportunities among AT specialists from different occupations in the Florida public schools setting, and (6) what type of training opportunities are essential among AT specialists from different occupations in the Florida school setting. In order to gather data of breadth and depth, the researcher disseminated an online survey, which 39 AT providers from the five Florida school regions completed. Interviews were conducted with seven of the survey respondents to triangulate interview data with the survey data. Results suggested that assistive technology specialists possess different levels of assistive technology knowledge and skills. Assistive technology specialists from different professional backgrounds and years of experience identified a lack of competence in several areas where they currently provide AT services. Assistive technology specialists should seek continuous in-service training to increase their assistive technology knowledge in the evaluation and recommendation of AT equipment and services for students with special needs in schools. This training is vital to meet their students’ assistive technology needs and legislation requirements for assistive technology services for students with disabilities. Recommendations for the improvement of assistive technology professional practice in schools are included in the study.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

The dissertation is concerned with socializing processes of pre-school children around three years of age. The first theoretical part is globally concerned with personality socialization and highlights the significance of socialization in the healthy psychical progression of human beings, as well as the importance of understanding the problems of socialization for the pedagogical profession. This knowledge is specific and generalized in a situational context when the child comes to the kindergarten for the first time and gets slowly untied from the family, developing new relationships outside the family sphere. Socialization in the kindergarten is influenced by many internal and external factors. These factors matter if the child coming to the new kindergarten environment will incorporate to this society without any complications. If any complications appear during the incorporation, internal and external factors also influence the period how long they will last and also they influence the manner how the child will manage them as well. Adaptation programm can facilitate the entrance to the kindergarten for parents and their children. By means of this support programme, alongside the familiar person, children can gradually get acquainted with the new kindergarten environment even before the start of...

This diploma thesis in its theoretical and practical parts focuses on free play of children in pre-school facilities. Kindergarten is the place of early secondary socialization of the child and that's why one part of the diploma thesis is centred on this theme. The theoretical part helps for a deeper understanding of play, especially with 2-4 year old children and builds a foundation for the research. The practical part, based on one year's observation, monitors development of free play of a homogeneous group of children and finds how the quality of play changes with individuals as well as the group. Another focus lies on comparing two separate groups of children in their free play - one group having long term experience with free play and one without such regular experience. The main method of the research is observation. The results of the research points to the importance of free play for a pre-school age child and confirms the influence of free play in the process of early secondary socialization.