The recognised benefits of social capital have resulted in a focus on ways to provide support to families within their context or community. At the same time there has been an emphasis on the interplay between environment and experiences in the early years of life and long term physical, neurological, psychosocial and emotional/behavioural developments for humans. Coincidentally the use of out of home care for young children has expanded rapidly. These issues have resulted in a call to reconceptualise the role of early childhood services as a nexus of the community. Researchers are increasingly referring to early childhood services as hubs from which multi-sectoral supports can be developed and delivered. This thesis reviews the current literature about the importance of the early years; the experiences within the early childhood service; the renewed focus on supports for families; and the role of early childhood services as community hubs. Despite a growing body of literature about early childhood services as community hubs and as the basis for developing relationships with families, it was found that there is a dearth of information about the ways in which families and early childhood staff interface in defining what constitutes ‘quality’ within services. Indeed it is shown that the voices of families are rarely, if ever, taken into account in the development of curriculum and assessment practices in early childhood services. Subsequently the supports that could assist staff in undertaking meaningful connections with families are not prominent in the current literature. This thesis addresses this gap in the knowledge base about early childhood service delivery. A sociocultural approach is used to investigate the level of shared perspectives, meaningful participation and other forms of meaning making between a small sample of families in diverse situations and their early childhood service. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are applied in the analyses of how early childhood services enhance or inhibit connectivity for families with preschool-aged children. In Phase One, an in-depth study of three families with diverse situations in one urban centre of Australia (An Aboriginal1 family; a culturally and linguistically diverse family; and a family wherein the father has a physical illness) is conducted. Data collection methods involve purposeful sampling, video taping, semi-structured and structured interviews and non participant observations in both the home and early childhood setting. Findings from Phase One identify six continua of issues, reported by parents to be meaningful in terms of experiences for their children. In Phase Two these findings are incorporated into a questionnaire entitled “Experiences that are valued in the early childhood service”. The questionnaire is administered to staff and families in diverse socio economic and geographical regions in order to test for generalisability of the original findings. This thesis indicates that the role of early childhood services as community and family support services is not well articulated nor well understood by staff or families. The findings from the study include: 1. Rather than supporting families, some forms of information dissemination from early childhood services actually increase pressure on families. 2. Staff and families have differing perceptions about the frequency of communication and the experiences occurring in the early childhood service. Families report that the experiences they value highly are not valued by the service. 3. Despite a strong emphasis on a multicultural approach to early childhood service delivery, not all families value this notion. Rather, families want early childhood services to ‘teach and reflect’ the dominant cultural ways of knowing and learning because this is associated with school success. 1 The researcher uses the term Aboriginal not Indigenous throughout the thesis as this as this is the main term the family used to identify themselves. 4. Some common and widely used measures assessing quality early childhood services do not include measures associated with family and community support. This thesis concludes with a set of recommendations for service delivery and policy decision makers. These focus on the need to embrace a ‘fifth discourse’ for early childhood services – one which defines the sector as the vehicle for providing safe ‘meeting places’ where families and staff participate in meaningful ways that result in true support for the complex role of parenting. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Social relations are commonly seen as exchanges between entities, a view implicitly indebted to Hegel?s account of the development of independent subjectivity. It is an analysis that explains many social interactions but that cannot explain key moments in social life. These moments occur in the non-Euclidean space and time of the in-between. This concept will be elucidated in this thesis through analysis of fieldwork examples and in relation to the work of Martin Buber and Donald Winnicott. The in-between arises when adults and children play together in the way described by Winnicott as playing in the third zone. A phenomenological, interpretive analysis of forms of relations between parents and their two year old children revealed playing in the in-between during everyday family life. While the fieldwork focuses on families at home, the arguments are not restricted to this arena. It has implications for those working with young children, challenging the current emphasis on a task-oriented focus on teaching and learning. A focus on social exchange creates early childhood programs that lack opportunities for being in the present moment in an unforced, un-knowing way. Such programs achieve set goals but may lack moments of infinite mutuality and tenderness such as those observed in the research. Relations cannot form when there is a continual focus on what is understood and known, on past accomplishments and future objectives. The in-between has three aspects; being fully present, un-knowing and mutuality through love. This analysis provides new views that will encourage opportunities for children and staff to be with one another in simple but profound moments of the in-between.

Two theoretical models were examined based on the contributions of preservice teachers' personal teaching efficacy, ethnic causal attributions, past teaching, and international interaction experiences to their behaviors toward international children in multicultural small group activity sessions. Path analytic results revealed that for both models, these variables together did not significantly predict the positive or negative behavior of preservice teachers. T-tests, applied to positive and negative behaviors indicated that these behaviors varied significantly based on the child's gender and classroom activity type. Aspects of gender and activity type were included in an additional exploratory analysis of 16 path models. Only six were significant, although even these did not explain a large percentage of the variance associated with preservice teachers' behaviors. Personal teaching efficacy had a significant direct positive impact on the frequency and quality of positive behaviors displayed by preservice teachers toward international girls during unstructured table activities. However, the ethnic attribution variable of locus of causality had a significant direct positive impact on the frequency and quality of positive behaviors displayed by preservice teachers toward international boys during structured storytime activities. In addition, teacher preparation level and past international interaction experience had a significant direct negative impact on the frequency and quality of negative behaviors, respectively displayed by preservice teachers toward international boys during unstructured table activities. Finally, among these significant path models (a) teacher preparation level and past international interaction experiences made significant direct positive impacts on the causal attribution variables of locus of causality and stability; (b) the causal attribution variable of stability had a significant direct negative impact on controllability, and (c) the significant path coefficients between personal teaching efficacy and the causal attribution variable of stability were positive, while those associated with controllability were negative. In a secondary analysis, differences between preservice teachers' behaviors toward international and U.S. children as a result of children' s ethnicity, gender, age, socioeconomic status, and involvement in different types of small group activities were examined, applying a multivariate analysis of variance. Positive behaviors displayed by preservice teachers were significantly lower for international than for U.S. children, while the converse was true for negative behaviors. In addition, both positive and negative behaviors displayed toward girls were significantly lower than for boys. Preservice teachers also displayed significantly more negative behaviors toward children during structured storytime than unstructured table activities. Overall, however, preservice teachers exhibited more positive than negative behaviors toward both international and U.S. children. / Graduation date: 1993

Thesis (Ph. D.)--School of Business and Public Administration and Dept. of Political Science. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2005. / "A dissertation in public affairs and administration and political science." Advisor: Joseph F. Singer. Typescript. Vita. Title from "catalog record" of the print edition Description based on contents viewed March 12, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-64 ). Online version of the print edition.

This paper examines the group ethos that is such a critical part of preschool education in contemporary Japan. The paper discusses the importance to parents and to the government of suppressing individuality and of inculcating a positive feeling for the group in children in Japanese early childhood education. The group ethos is a part of Japanese society as a whole and of its political culture, in particular. The purpose of this paper is to attempt to discover parallels between values that prevail in early childhood classrooms and in Japanese politics and culture. The paper also explores the possible costs, both to individual children and to society, of the overarching priority of socialization for group living in the preschool setting. / Graduation date: 1998

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on January 5, 2010). Vita. Thesis advisor: Dr. Judith C. Goodman. Includes bibliographical references

This research aims to determine whether the voucher scheme in Hong Kong would really increase professional development of Hong Kong early childhood teachers, and to see how the teachers will react to this change. Few studies have been conducted on how the voucher system affects the teachers. A qualitative approach was employed where a total of twelve teachers and four principals from the four kindergarten schools were asked to participate in the study. The results of the study show that teachers from the different kindergartens were having more convergent views about the pre-primary education voucher scheme among the teachers from these schools. Many of them believe that the voucher scheme is in fact a fair policy and that it could effectively improve teachers‟ quality, though the apprehension of old generation teachers over the influx of the younger and relatively more qualified teachers is a concern that needs to be addressed. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Almost all 3- to 6-year-olds attend preschool programmes in Hong Kong, yet until recently early childhood education (ECE) was excluded from the boundaries of formal government policy and the sector received minimal financial support from the government. The eventual introduction in 2007 of the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme (PEVS) — a HK$2 billion government package to subsidise ECE, instead of bringing the early childhood predicament to an end, generated considerable controversy due to its unique nature. Unlike other education voucher programmes, which promote and rely on the “free” market to regulate the quality of education provision, the PEVS limits the vouchers to a restricted sector of the ECE market and ties financial assistance with official quality assessments. Against this background, the purpose of this study was to examine the evolution and the continuous development of this atypical education voucher scheme in the policy context of Hong Kong. The PEVS is conceptualised as both product and process, constantly shaped and reshaped by policymakers as well as parents and ECE providers. To adequately capture the evolving and emergent nature of the policy process and reflect the divergent voices of these stakeholders, a mixed-method approach was employed, and a historical approach is used to analyse and discuss the findings. Focusing on the context of policy text production, in the first two time periods, namely Pre-voucher (Pre-2006) and Announcement and Amendments (2006 – 2009), the rationale for the development and the modifications of the policy text was explored through documentary analyses. In the following time period, After Amendments (2009 – 2010), a survey of 628 parents, kindergarten principals, and teachers, and in-depth interviews with 16 kindergarten principals and teachers were conducted to determine the opportunities for parents and ECE providers to reform and reinterpret the policy text in different contexts of practice. In the final time period, the Official Review and Further Re-modification of the Policy Text (2010 onwards), the results obtained were compared with that of a critical analysis of the official government review of the PEVS and the resulting package of enhancement measures endorsed by the government to understand how parents and ECE providers in the context of practice might in return affect the production of the policy text. Taken together, the results illustrate a full depiction of the policy process. They also show the intertwining relationship among the government, parents, and ECE providers, as well as between the two contexts of policymaking. The illumination of these previously unexplored subjects has important theoretical and practical implications for educational change and policymaking in ECE, and lays the foundation for future research in related areas. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

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