This study, situated in classroom practice and grounded in pedagogic wakefulness (Clandinin and Connelly, 2000), explores the nature of young children’s sense of voice as indicated through sustained interactions and representations of experiences with picturebook literature. The naturalistic research site was a grade one classroom setting in a large urban school. Student engagement and interactions with read-aloud events and responses to literature through multi-modal representations perpetuated meaning making and personal relevance. Coding procedures exemplified the nature of young children’s sense of voice as falling into two broad conceptual categories: (1) Situated Nature and (2) Experiential Nature. The Situated Nature of young children’s sense of voice revealed developmental, exploratory, and social sites of student engagement to literature. The Experiential Nature of young children’s sense of voice described three specificities of narrativity in their responses to picturebook literature: Young children’s multi-modal responses were interpreted as representative of Self- Narrativity, Interpretive-Narrativity, and Aesthetic-Narrativity. The findings contribute to a reconceptualized literacy curriculum which illuminates personal, social, and cultural identities, especially young children’s awareness of their individual sense of voice, developed through picturebook literature in primary classrooms. / xii, 151 leaves : col. ill. ; 29 cm.

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Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Planet Earth is plagued by a myriad of problems which have been on the increase in recent years. These include, among other things, e–waste; reduction in biodiversity, air pollution, global warming and many more. Undoubtedly, the greed of human beings more than the quest to satisfy needs has been at the core of these problems which threaten the sustainability of earth’s ecosystems. For some years now, Environmental Education (EE) has been acknowledged and, consequently, employed as the vehicle to offset the impact of the challenges which continue to degrade Planet Earth. Hence, many levels of education, especially formal education; have been making some inroads towards empowering people to change their behaviour and help others through the integration of EE in learning and teaching activities. Unfortunately, the early childhood stage of human development has been neglected when it comes to education issues, in general (Calman and Tarr–Whelan 2005; Davis 1998), and in the context of this study, in issues concerning Environmental Education (Davis 2009). For example, Davis (2009) conducted a literature survey for the period 1996 – 2007 with a focus on environmental education/education for sustainability and childhood education and discovered that little research had been conducted in this area. Hence, she laments, “in general, early childhood education researchers have not engaged with environmental/sustainability issues, and environmental education researchers have not focused on very young children and educational settings” (Davis 2009: 229). Accordingly, this study was undertaken in response to Davis’s (2009) outcry and the realisation that, indeed, even in the context of South Africa, there is paucity of research in the areas identified by Davis (2009). The purpose of this qualitative–interpretive paradigm guided inquiry was to investigate the extent to which Environmental Education is integrated in Grade R teaching and learning activities at selected Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centres in the North West Province of South Africa. In order to gain in–depth information and multiple perspectives (Creswell 2007) on the subject of inquiry, the maximum variation strategy, a subtype of purposeful sampling (McMillan and Schumacher 1997) was used for case selection.Consequently, four Grade R offering ECD centres with diverse characteristics participated in this inquiry. From each of the selected centres, one Grade R classroom was selected for investigation. Likewise, the Grade R teachers whose classes were selected together with their principals participated in the investigation. Three data generation strategies were used in this inquiry, namely; participant observations, semi–structured interviews, and document and artefact analysis. And, in order to assign meaning to generated data, two data analysis strategies were utilized, namely; constant comparison (Leech and Onwuegbuzie 2007) and domain analysis (Neuman 2011). Evidence from this study suggests that, to a very limited extent, some Grade R teachers do integrate environmental issues in their activities. However, this infusion of EE is done, mainly, in the form of teaching about the environment with little or no teaching in/through and for the environment. Hence, viewed from Kopelke’s (2012) perspective, this integration of environmental issues can be considered to be environmental studies. Likewise, hindrances to the integration of EE in selected Grade R classes were identified. These included the following: classroom overcrowding, underfunding, inadequate teacher training and lack of resources. On the other hand, the following were some of the factors identified as enablers of EE infusion: collaboration among the Grade R teachers, well–designed Learning and Teaching Support Material (LTSM) and, enabling curriculum frameworks. The study makes the following recommendations, among other things: the prioritisation of Grade R teacher training and remuneration, on–going and meaningful professional support for Grade R teachers, adherence to the norms and standards for Grade R funding and empowerment of School Management Teams and Senior Education Specialists to adequately support the Grade R teachers. Additionally, studies of similar nature are recommended and the study is rounded off with some guidelines on the integration of EE in Grade R. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Planeet Aarde word deur ontelbare probleme wat in die afgelope jare verhoog geteister. Hierdie probleme sluit in, onder andere, e–afval, vermindering van biodiversiteit, lugbesoedeling, aardverwarming en nog meer. Sonder twyfel word die gulsigheid van die mens liewer as die voorsiening van behoeftes as die kern van hierdie probleme, wat die volhoubaarheid van die aarde se ekosisteme bedreig, beskou. Vir ’n paar jaar word Omgewingsopvoeding (OO) erken en gevolglik gebruik om die effek van die voortdurende uitdagings om Planeet Aarde te degradeer en te neutraliseer. Gevolglik het baie vlakke van onderwys, veral formele onderwys; deur die integrasie van Omgewingsopvoeding in leer= en onderrigaktieiteite vordering t.o.v die bemagtiging van mense gemaak om sodoende hul gedrag te verander en ander mense in die proses te help. Ongelukkig word die vroeë kinderfasee van menslike ontwikkeling in die algemeen, verwaarlos waneer dit by onderwyskwessies kom (Calman en Tarr–Whelan 2005; Davis 1998), en veral in die konteks van hierdie studie, spesifiek die kwessies van Omgewingsopvoeding(Davis, 2009). Davis (2009) het ’n literatuuroorsig vir die tydperk 1996 – 2007 met die fokus op omgewings /opvoeding vir volhoubaarheid in kinderonderwys gedoen, en ontdek dat baie min navorsing in hierdie gebied gedoen is. Dus betreur sy die feit dat “in die algemeen navorsers in vroeë kinderonderwys nie die kwessies van volhoubaarheid aangeraak het nie en die navorsers in omgewingsopvoeding nie op baie jong kinders en hulle opvoedkundige kontekste gefokus het nie” (Davis 2009: 229). Gevolglik is hierdie studie onderneem in respons op Davis (2009) se verweer en ook die besef dat, inderdaad; selfs in die konteks van Suid–Afrika, daar ‘n gebrek aan navorsing in die areas wat deur Davis (2009) geidentifiseer is bestaan. Die doel van hierdie kwalitatiewe–interpretatiewe ondersoek is om die mate waarin omgewingsopvoeding, in Graad R–onderrig en leeraktiwiteite by Vroeëkindontwikkeling (VKO) sentrums in die Noordwes Provinsie van Suid–Afrika geintegeer is, te ondersoek. Ten einde, in–diepte inligting en veelvuldige perspektiewe (Creswell 2007) oor die onderwerp van ondersoek te verwerf, is die maksimum variasie–strategie (McMillan and Schumacher 1997), wat ‘n sub–kategorie van doelgerigte steekproewe is as keuse vir hierdie gevallestudie gebruik. Gevolglik is vier VKO–sentrums, met uiteenlopende kenmerke, wat Graad R aanbied by hierdie ondersoek betrek. Uit elke gekose sentrum is een Graad R–klaskamer vir ondersoek gekies. Terselfdetyd het die Graad R–onderwysers van die gekose klasse en hul skoolhoofde aan die ondersoek deelgeneem. Drie strategiee is gebruik om data in hierdie ondersoek te genereer naamlik; deelnemer–waarneming, semi–gestruktureerde onderhoude en die analise van dokumente en artefakte. Twee strategiee is gebruik om data te analiseer en betekenis daaraan te gee, naamlik; konstant–vergelykings (Leech and Onwuegbuzie 2007) en domein– analise (Neuman 2011). Bewyse uit hierdie studie dui daarop dat, sekere Graad R–onderwysers tot ’n baie beperkte mate, omgewingskwessies in hul aktiwiteite integreer. Hierdie integrasie van omgewingsopvoeding sluit hoofsaaklik onderrig oor die omgewing in met min of geen onderrig of/deur en vir die omgewing. Dus, vanuit Kopelke (2012) se perspektief, kan hierdie integrasie van omgewings–kwessies in aanmerking geneem word by omgewingsstudies. Daarbenewens is ook, hindernisse tot die integrasie van OO in gekoste Graad R–klase identifiseer. Dit sluit die volgende in: oorbevolkte klaskamers, swakbefondsing, onvoldoende opleiding van onderwysers en ’n gebrek aan hulpbronne. Andersyds is die volgende faktore identifiseer as geleenthede wat die integrasie van OO kan bevorder: samewerking tussen die Graad R–onderwysers, goed ontwerpte Leer en Onderrig Ondersteuning Materiaal (LOOM) en bemagtigende kurrikulumraamwerke. Die studie maak onder andere die volgende aanbevelings: die prioritisering van Graad R–onderwyser- opleiding, deurlopende en betekenisvolle professionele ondersteuning aan Graad R–onderwysers, voldoening aan die norme en standaarde vir Graad R–befondsing, en die bemagtiging van Skoolbestuurspanne en Senior Onderwys–spesialiste tot die effektiewe ondersteuning van Graad R–onderwysers. Daarbenewens word, studies van soortgelyke aard aanbeveel en word die studie met ’n paar riglyne oor die integrasie van OO in Graad R afgerond.

Hersh (1986) states, "One's conception of what mathematics is affects one's conception of how it should be presented. One's manner of presenting it is an indication of what one believes to be most essential in it." In this research study, three hundred ninety-seven urban early childhood teachers were given a survey that examined their attitudes toward mathematics and mathematics teaching, their views of mathematics, views of teaching mathematics, and views of children learning mathematics. The purpose of this study was to identify the attitudes and beliefs of early childhood teachers in two urban school districts to determine if mathematics reform efforts made a difference in teachers' attitudes and beliefs about mathematics and its teaching. Questionnaires were mailed directly to teachers in one school district and principals distributed questionnaires in the other. Summary scores were calculated for parts of the instrument. The researcher performed descriptive statistics, comparative analysis, and conducted frequency distributions, t-tests, ANOVA, and Pearson Correlations. Findings revealed that teachers with 30 or more years of teaching experience had more positive attitudes toward mathematics than teachers with 1-3 years of experience. African American teachers had more positive attitudes toward mathematics and its teaching than other ethnic groups. Teachers who held a minor or major in mathematics had more positive attitudes toward mathematics and its teaching than teachers without a minor or major in mathematics. Teachers in District-A favored constructivist learning while teachers in District-B favored rote learning. Both school districts' teachers favored the problem-solving approach to teaching mathematics. If instruction is to be transformed, reformers need to understand teachers' beliefs about mathematics. Beliefs, which are essential for teachers' development, seldom change without significant intervention (Lappan and Theule-Lubienski, 1994). Therefore, school districts must be informed about the changes necessary for the reform of mathematics teaching and identify and implement through staff developments and other measures what they perceive mathematics to be and how it should be taught.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether kindergarten children possess the ability to recognize, match, and discuss lines and line qualities. Using graphics and art reproductions, three matching tasks were constructed which examined young children's awareness of the line qualities of length, width, straightness, direction, movement, and uniformity. Graphics and art reproductions were also used to construct two tracing tasks employed to examine young children's awareness of actual and implied lines. The tasks were administered to 69 kindergarten students from four elementary schools in a public school district in the north central Texas area.

This dissertation draws on data from a six-month study of the materiality of one Kindergarten classroom undergoing curriculum reform in an urban public elementary school. Informed by a network case study approach, whereby case study methods are uncased through an Actor Network Theory lens, I question what it means to say literacy curriculum is enacted, or reformed, by acknowledging the multiplicity of actors entangled within curriculum, both human and non-human, local and distant, invited and uninvited. Furthermore, I propose ways of uncasing studies of literacy curriculum, revealing how no site—a school, a classroom, or an instructional block—is a fixed case but rather is constructed through networks of mobility streaming from many places. Through ecological surveys, images, fieldnotes, recordings and document archives, I trace the materialities of one Kindergarten classroom outward to reveal multiple dynamic networks—shifting school zones, neighborhoods, and curricular trends—that mobilize various bodies and materials into one seemingly stable public-school classroom. Networked within one morning meeting, for instance, were rotting pumpkins, pocket charts and cheese sandwiches doing the work of environmental nonprofits, DOE officials, and cafeteria staff, all entangled with the teacher and students in solving the problem of food waste at lunch. However, I also confront ethical choices made in tracing literacy curriculum as material “network effects.” Set in the nation’s most segregated school system, I address how curriculum is not only affected by networks of circulating materials, but also networks circulating students’ bodies into unequal school spaces, leading to neighborhood gentrification and changing school funding and enrollment. I conclude with what responsibilities exist for researchers advocating for a material focus to address systemic issues of injustice in schools.

This portfolio and the project described therein, focus on applied professional ethics for early childhood education settings, particularly during fieldwork, for students and practising professionals. It contains the results of a four year project of research, its synthesis and its dissemination as articles, book chapters, conference presentations and papers and teaching resource materials. Specifically, the materials presented here focus on the resolution of dilemmas using the Ethical Response Cycle, a new model for responding ethically to problematic situations. The model is represented as a cyclical diagram depicting the ongoing, fluid and non-hierarchical nature of ethical judgement that is needed by professionals in any problematic situation. The model includes phases which are underpinned and supported by reflective thinking and negotiation, and are based on Western ethical positions. Suggestions for further research are made. / Doctor of Education ( Ed.D.)

This dissertation is on the subject of bilingual vocabulary acquisition, specifically regarding children between the age of 12 and 20-24 months, and presents a longitudinal case study of a Cantonese-English bilingual child. We begin by questioning the role of exposure (in terms of number and frequency of utterances) as a reliable indicator of vocabulary acquisition at such a young age. While exposure is undoubtedly a good indicator of acquisition from age 2;0 upwards (Huttenlocher, Haight, Byrk, Seltzer, & Lyons, 1991, David & Li, 2008), we suggest that other more specific factors are more crucial at earlier stages, when the rate of vocabulary growth is slower. As such, using a parental diary and a series of video experiments, we propose and test hypotheses concerning the roles of child directed speech (CDS), salience of exposure, emotional arousal and phonological complexity in early language acquisition. Regarding CDS, results taken from the parental diary show apparent selection and adaptation of vocabulary to fit reduplicated forms between the ages of 1;0 and 1;5. In conjunction with previous research, we propose that, between 1;0 and 1;5, during the whole-word stage (Vihman & Croft, 2007), salience and phonological simplicity of exposure are key factors in vocabulary acquisition. This hypothesis points to a likely initial Cantonese dominance in English-Cantonese bilinguals, which is supported by our data. Our results from video experiments appear to support hypotheses concerning positive emotional arousal as a facilitator of vocabulary acquisition prior to 20-24 months, and also of a child’s ability to acquire language with minimal exposure, in a similar but not identical process to fast mapping (Carey & Bartlett, 1978). We propose as such that emotional arousal is a key component in language acquisition before age 2;0, and link this type acquisition to flashbulb memories (Brown & Kulik, 1977). Finally we show that our parental diary data corroborates the well documented verb and noun biases in Chinese (Choi & Gopnik, 1995) and English (Bornstein et al., 2004) respectively. We question what these conflicting biases may mean for a bilingual child in terms of language dominance and code mixing, and also discuss potential reasons for, and implications of, these biases. / published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

Due to a scarcity of research on young children’s Chinese character writing development and learning, there is insufficient empirical evidence to support the practices of helping young children learn to write in the context of Hong Kong. Grounded on the views about the nature of Chinese language and from the perspective of emergent literacy, this study looked into young children’s Chinese character writing forms under free writing conditions and focused attention on categorizing the forms and identifies the developmental patterns. In consideration of the purpose of study to pursue a better understanding about the field of study, this study used qualitative methods to research. The design adopted a strategy of multiple-case study, longitudinal approach and qualitative data collection methods. Data analysis employed an inductive and analytical approach incorporating some quantitative techniques to aggregate results in order to generate findings. The categorization of writing forms gave rise to a classification scheme based on aggregated time-order emergences of writing categories. Synthesis of the findings led to identifying the developmental patterns that was framed by a general progression of two-stage development. Under a pattern of gradual change in the two-stage development, variations of writing forms indicated patterns of variability in relation to the stroke, component, and character units of Chinese character, which encompass a range of linguistic features including stroke-order writing. These findings revealed child’s underlying knowledge in Chinese characters, which will be useful for the educational field. The findings contribute to a tentative theory of early Chinese character writing about children demonstrating a gradual progression in two stages embracing individual differences in forms and time of development in early Chinese character writing during the preschool years. Insights derived from the findings of this study enabled the author to discuss the relation of the unique nature and characteristics of Chinese character to children’s learning to write, and point to inadequacies of some current thinking and practices. The thesis ends with educational implications of orthographic-focused Chinese character writing instruction and research implications of the tentative framework of understanding. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education

This qualitative dissertation explores the beliefs of 15 pre-service teachers who completed their apprentice teaching semester in diverse early childhood classrooms. The pre-service teachers' beliefs about teaching in diverse early childhood classrooms and the experiences the pre-service teachers attributed to having influenced and/or challenged their prior beliefs are of particular interest in this study. An analysis of interview data resulted in four themes. The first theme explores the participants' focus on their beliefs about how students learn, the role of the teacher in students' learning, and the importance of building a classroom community when asked to describe teaching in diverse early childhood classrooms. The ways in which the participants marginalized multicultural education by limiting what it included and by reserving it for particular subject areas, grade levels, and groups of children is described in the second theme. The third theme details the experiences that altered the participants' prior beliefs about teaching in diverse early childhood classrooms, including seeing difference, confronting prejudices, observing teachers, and refining beliefs. In the final theme, I examine the instability found in the participants' beliefs with regard to language, difference, families, and holidays. A second phase of research, including interview, observation, and document data, resulted in two themes: adopting pedagogical approaches and reflecting on practice. These findings lead to three conclusions for this study. First, pre-service teachers' beliefs about teaching in diverse classrooms are more complex than previous research has suggested. Second, reflecting on beliefs and practice is essential to the development of multicultural education practices. However, reflection about diversity, by itself, does not help pre-service teachers with their practice during field placements. Pre-service teachers need opportunities to observe multicultural education practices to connect beliefs and theory to practice. Finally, teacher educators need to understand the prior experiences and beliefs of the pre-service teachers in their courses in order to plan a range of activities that meet pre-service teachers where they are and then take them where they need to go with regards to their beliefs about teaching in diverse classrooms, so that these activities are effective for providing an interruption of prior beliefs. / text