Globalization and neo-liberal practices have influenced education and schooling in various ways, particularly through curricula. As a result, interest in elementary school, particularly kindergarten, education has been generated by supranational organizations; specifically the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), as well as international organizations such as the European Union and numerous federal and provincial governments, including the Canadian, Ontario and Hellenic governments. This research explores how democratic citizenship education is reflected in kindergarten curricula in Ontario, Canada and Hellas, Greece. Because of growing concerns with democratic citizenship education, in this study, I have analyzed and compared the kindergarten education curricula of Ontario and Hellas in terms of democratic citizenship education and how it is reflected in their respective curricula. I analyzed supplementary and supportive reports, guides and other educational documents about democratic citizenship education published by supranational and international organizations. In order to accomplish this, I utilized a critical pedagogic perspective through Critical Discourse Analysis. In addition, important concerns about citizenship education in kindergarten are discussed and recommendations for curriculum studies are provided. This study is significant in its exploration of the ways that democratic citizenship education is being reflected in kindergarten curricula in Ontario and Hellas and in the revelation of similarities and differences between them, as well as within a global context.

Presently, over five million English-language learners (ELLs) are being educated in U.S. schools, and by the year 2020, more than half of the public school system population in the U.S. will be from families whose native language is not English (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2005). Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) (Ladson-Billings, 1995) provides a framework for classroom teachers to meet the needs of diverse learners. This ethnographic case study describes what CRP looks like for young ELLs and how a pre-kindergarten school teacher and her bilingual paraprofessional successfully implement CRP. This study: (a) examined the manifestation of culturally relevant pedagogy in a pre-kindergarten classroom for English-language learners, and (b) investigated the ways two teachers promoted three central tenets of CRP in their pre-kindergarten classroom: (1) academic success; (2) cultural competence; and (3) critical consciousness. The research questions were explored by collecting fieldnotes during 20 classroom observations, 3 individual interview transcripts, 3 individual member-checking transcripts, and 15 classroom documents. Findings were based on an open-coding analysis process and a priori coding to demonstrate examples of culturally relevant pedagogical practices and beliefs. The data suggests five major principles of CRP for young ELLs: (1) Oral multilingual classroom language experiences for young children occurred frequently; (2) Monolingual and bilingual teacher collaboration was beneficial for teachers and young children’s language and cultural development; (3) Children’s funds of knowledge were employed and integrated into classroom learning experiences; (4) Peer-to-peer interactions promoted language learning, literacy, and cultural understandings; and (5) Teachers’ and children’s acknowledgement of cultural similarities and differences were built upon. Furthermore, teachers promoted academic success by not accepting student failure and making students responsible for the academic success of their peers; cultural competence is established when teachers encourage children to interact effectively with others from different cultures; and critical consciousness is fostered when children know their authentic stories, are able to stand up for themselves, and ask questions about the world around them. These findings provide a greater understanding of CRP for young ELLs, specifically in a pre-kindergarten context, and hold important implications on future research on CRP.

This is a study of changes in Chinese kindergarten education in the era of the post-Mao four modernisations. Based on fieldwork carried out in China in 1997, this thesis examined the changes of Chinese kindergarten education at two levels — changes in system (structural change) and changes in educational activities (curriculum and ideological change), especially for the period of the 1990s. Changes are described and discussed in a historical context, in which both changes in policy and in practice are examined. Changes in education are closely linked to the social, political, economic and cultural context. The content, process and outcomes of reform in early childhood education in China have been affected by the national goals of reform, the social context of early educational institutions, their organizational characteristics, family structure, family policy, and the specific professional culture of teaching and learning. Recent structural reforms in early childhood education have been shaped by the foremost task of the nation - economic development. The previous welfare model of kindergarten, which was regarded as one of the outcomes of a socialist system, is being transformed into a new market competitive model to meet a political demand for the marketisation of society. The curricula of early educational program, teachers' attitudes to children, and their professional activities, therefore, have been re-shaped according to new ideas about the needs and abilities of children, new conceptions of child development and, not least, the new modernisation "knowledge" that gained ascendancy in China during the 1990s. / digitalisering@umu

The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the attitudes and preferences regarding home/school involvement strategies of 23 mothers of kindergarten students who had been identified as at-risk for failure in school and 18 mothers of kindergarten students who had been designated as peer models. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Chi square and t-tests were used at the .05 level to determine if there were significant differences between the responses of the two groups. Respondents were asked to express their preferences for programs and services designed to support families, potential use of these programs and services, views concerning the importance of different home/school involvement strategies, comfort level with different home/school involvement strategies, preferences for topics for parent education, and preferences for ways of learning about helping their children. A significant difference was found between the two groups regarding potential use of programs and services, views concerning the importance of different home/school involvement strategies, and preferences for ways of learning about their children. Mothers of at-risk students favored one-way communication with schools and strategies that were not social in nature. Mothers of at-risk students showed an interest in parent education topics which discussed general development and family maintenance over discipline. The mean age at the birth of the first child for mothers of at-risk students was 19.4 years while the mean age at the birth of the first child of mothers of peer model students was 24.3 years. / Graduation date: 1991

In Canada and internationally, policy makers are moving towards more comprehensive and integrated service delivery models for early learning that include parent involvement and support as integral to their design. The current study was part of an ongoing evaluation of the Best Start project in Peel Region, a municipality in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Best Start aims to integrate preschool, junior/senior kindergarten, child care, public health and parenting programs into a seamless, easily accessible early child development system. This study examined whether parents with kindergarten children enrolled in Best Start schools, where kindergarten and child care were co-located and service integration was underway, would report lower levels of parenting daily hassles compared to parents of children in demographically similar schools where there was no service integration. Parental perceptions about hassles specific to child care and early learning settings were measured using the Early Childhood-Parenting Daily Hassles Scale (EC-PDH) (Arimura, 2008). Three areas of parenting stress that could potentially be reduced through service integration were explored: (1) seamless day – seamless access to care, education and family support; (2) connectedness – parents feeling involved and connected to their child’s school; and (3) parenting capacity – parents feeling confident in their parenting role. The study also combined hassles scores from Best Start and comparison schools to examine all parents’ involvement in the early learning and care system and the hassles they may or may not face on a daily basis as a function of parent demographics and program usage. Parents from 369 families in 10 schools were included in this study. Although Best Start parents did not report lower levels of parenting daily hassles compared to comparison parents, qualitative analyses at Best Start sites where parents used child care suggested that parents were feeling supported and they were forging positive relationships with staff. The positive relationships reported among parents and ECEs or other staff were not as frequent between parents and kindergarten teachers. Combined data indicated that all parents seemed to be experiencing the greatest hassles in the parenting capacity domain. Results are discussed in terms of policy implications for parent involvement in integrated full-day early learning programs such as full-day kindergarten.

In Canada and internationally, policy makers are moving towards more comprehensive and integrated service delivery models for early learning that include parent involvement and support as integral to their design. The current study was part of an ongoing evaluation of the Best Start project in Peel Region, a municipality in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Best Start aims to integrate preschool, junior/senior kindergarten, child care, public health and parenting programs into a seamless, easily accessible early child development system. This study examined whether parents with kindergarten children enrolled in Best Start schools, where kindergarten and child care were co-located and service integration was underway, would report lower levels of parenting daily hassles compared to parents of children in demographically similar schools where there was no service integration. Parental perceptions about hassles specific to child care and early learning settings were measured using the Early Childhood-Parenting Daily Hassles Scale (EC-PDH) (Arimura, 2008). Three areas of parenting stress that could potentially be reduced through service integration were explored: (1) seamless day – seamless access to care, education and family support; (2) connectedness – parents feeling involved and connected to their child’s school; and (3) parenting capacity – parents feeling confident in their parenting role. The study also combined hassles scores from Best Start and comparison schools to examine all parents’ involvement in the early learning and care system and the hassles they may or may not face on a daily basis as a function of parent demographics and program usage. Parents from 369 families in 10 schools were included in this study. Although Best Start parents did not report lower levels of parenting daily hassles compared to comparison parents, qualitative analyses at Best Start sites where parents used child care suggested that parents were feeling supported and they were forging positive relationships with staff. The positive relationships reported among parents and ECEs or other staff were not as frequent between parents and kindergarten teachers. Combined data indicated that all parents seemed to be experiencing the greatest hassles in the parenting capacity domain. Results are discussed in terms of policy implications for parent involvement in integrated full-day early learning programs such as full-day kindergarten.

ABSTRACT KINDERGARTEN TEACHERS’ KNOWLEDGE AND PERCEPTIONS OF EARLY LEARNING-RELATED SKILLS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT by Kathryn Powell Historically, the kindergarten curriculum emphasized social-emotional development including interpersonal and learning-related skills (Logue, 2007). Researchers have confirmed that teachers valued social-emotional development, particularly learning-related skills, as foundational skills to school readiness and future academic achievement (e.g., Heaviside & Farris, 1993). Since the implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB, 2002), the focus of kindergarten has changed to incorporate additional academic standards and goals (Fantuzzo et al., 2007). This mixed method study (Tashakkori & Teddlie, 1998) utilized quantitative (i.e., surveys) and qualitative (i.e., semi-structured interviews) methods to investigate and compare the perceptions of pre-NCLB to post-NCLB kindergarten teachers regarding the significance of learning-related skills to academic achievement. A sample (N=97) of certified kindergarten teachers currently working in and around the metro Atlanta area with one or more years of kindergarten experience were administered surveys. Thirty participants from the larger sample were included in the qualitative phase of the study. It was hypothesized that teachers would rate learning-related skills as important precursors to academic achievement; however, pre-NCLB teachers would rate learning-related skills as more important than their peers. The results suggested that there was no difference in pre- and post-NCLB teachers’ perceptions of the importance of learning-related skills to students’ school readiness. There also, was not a significant difference in how pre- and post-NCLB kindergarten teachers prioritized school readiness skills (learning-related, interpersonal, academic). However, when asked to rank these skills in terms of importance there was a significant difference between the two groups. Pre-NCLB teachers indicated interpersonal skills as more important to school readiness than post-NCLB teachers and post-NCLB teachers indicated academic skills as more important than pre-NCLB teachers. No significant difference was found in teachers’ beliefs about achievement or efficacy. Implications for curriculum, policy, research, and practice will be discussed.

Sverige och Finland är två länder som ofta jämförs. Så även inom utbildning då media framställer finska barn som framgångsrika. Förutom hög status inom lärarprofessionen i Finland bekräftas framstegen i PISAs undersökningar där finska skolungdomar presterar höga resultat. För de små barnen går största delen av dagen ut på att leka och undersöka deras närmiljö. Genom leken skaffar sig barnet värdefulla färdigheter som gagnar barnet i det livslånga lärandet. Under förskolevistelsen erbjuds barnen en pedagogisk verksamhet utifrån styrdokument. I denna uppsats jämförs Sveriges och Finlands läroplaner för förskolan för att få en bild av hur leken framställs i dem och hur läroplanerna ser på lärande genom leken. Granskningen av läroplanerna presenteras genom en sammanfattning av de olika delarna för att bli jämförbara som en helhet. Resultatet visar att likheter finns mellan de två grannländernas läroplaner, men att de framställs på olika sätt. Leken som redskap till lärande framträder ofta i den Finska läroplanen medan den Svenska läroplanen säger att all verksamhet ska utgå från det lustfyllda lärandet för barn.

Title: From preschool to preschool in school – Expectations between parents, teachers and children Author: Maria Rask Gradin Mentor: Niclas Järvklo Term: Spring 2012   Abstract The aim of this study is to draw attention to the expectations between parents, children and teachers at preschools and teachers in the preschool in the school at the transition to preschool in the school. I also want to know how the mission is defined, and how it is met. Two preschools and two preschool in the school are the focus of my investigation. I interviewed teachers and parents, sent surveys to parents, observed children playing school and interviewed children about their thoughts and expectations for the preschool in the school there. The survey results show that all parties, except perhaps the children who did not express an opinion thereon, wants better cooperation between the preschool and school. All teachers expect children to be independent when they start preschool in school. The various examination subjects expectations were in fairly good agreement with each other. When the cooperation is not working desirable between preschool and preschool in the school, it is difficult to convey everyone's expectations and thus difficult to meet them, therefore, greater cooperation is desirable. In summary, the preschools and preschools in the schools in this study needs to develop greater cooperation to make it easier for the children in the transition between the preschool and the school. / Syftet med undersökningen är att uppmärksamma de förväntningar som råder mellan föräldrar, barn och pedagoger på förskolor samt pedagoger i förskoleklassen vid övergång till förskoleklass i skolan. Jag vill också veta hur uppdraget definieras, och hur det uppfylls. Två förskolor och två förskoleklasser är i centrum för min undersökning. Där har jag intervjuat pedagoger och föräldrar, skickat enkätundersökningar till föräldrar, observerat barn som leker skola och intervjuat barn kring deras tankar och förväntningar inför förskoleklassen. Undersökningsresultatet visar att alla parter, utom möjligtvis barnen som inte uttryckte sig om detta, önskar ett bättre samarbete mellan förskola och skola. Alla pedagoger förväntar sig att barnen är självständiga när de börjar i förskoleklassen. De olika undersökningspersonernas förväntningar stämde ganska bra överens med varandra. Då samarbetet inte fungerar önskvärt mellan förskola och förskoleklass är det svårt att förmedla allas förväntningar och därmed svårt att möta dem, därför är ett ökat samarbete önskvärt. Sammanfattningsvis behöver de förskolor och skolor jag har med i min undersökning öka sitt samarbete för att underlätta för barnen i övergången mellan förskola och förskoleklass.

<p>This study examined the effect of the Kindergarten Home Visit Project, a novel universal intervention program designed to enhance the transition to kindergarten for children and families by providing teachers with the training and support they need to conduct a home visit for each of their students at the beginning of the school year. Forty-four kindergarten teachers from 19 schools and 928 children and their families participated in the project. Teachers were blocked within schools and randomly assigned to intervention or control conditions. Intervention teachers successfully completed home visits for 98% of their students. After controlling for child and teacher demographic factors, multilevel modeling with children nested within classrooms and schools revealed that random assignment to receive a home visit had a significant positive impact on classroom work habits by students and teacher-child relationship warmth at the end of kindergarten. Assignment to home visiting was also associated with positive child outcomes for girls, specifically including: higher academic achievement, academic motivation, work habits, social skills, and better conduct. Impact on boys was non-significant. The effect of home visiting on child outcomes was mediated by an intervening effect on academic motivation for girls during the fall. Positive effects of assignment to intervention were also demonstrated for children from non-English speaking homes. These children demonstrated higher academic motivation and better work habits. In addition, both non-English speaking parents and their teachers reported reduced adverse effects of language barriers on home-school collaboration. The intervention was also found to have a positive effect on teacher attitudes and beliefs. Teachers who conducted home visits reported an increased understanding of the diverse needs and cultural differences of families, a greater willingness to reach out to parents, and a more positive connection to students and their families. These findings suggest that home visiting is beneficial to teachers, students and families and should be continued and expanded as a kindergarten transition practice in the schools.</p> / Dissertation