Proximity with under two-year-olds in early childhood education: a silent pedagogical encounter

Abstract

Using mixed methods to analyse the experience of a 4-month-old and a 10-month-old infant in a high-quality New Zealand education and care setting, this paper utilises dialogic methodology to foreground the importance of key teacher proximity to infant relationships with adults, peers and artefacts in a group context. Quantitative findings highlight the different types of language initiations and responses that take place for infants when their key teachers (and other teachers) are in close proximity, and when they are not. These are supported by vignettes drawn from infant, key teacher and researcher visual fields of video footage, which highlight the impact of teacher proximity for infants in intersubjective relationships that are underpinned by strong attachment. Taken together, these findings convey a silent form of pedagogy which, when considered in tandem with other forms of communication, is of extreme relevance for infant engagement in early childhood education groups.

Keywords:

• pedagogy
• infant
• proximity
• dialogism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

This project was supported by summer scholarship funding from University of Waikato and Wilf Malcolm Institute for Educational Research.

Notes on contributors

Elizabeth Jayne White As Associate of the Centre for Global Studies and a member of the Early Years Research Centre, Jayne's work focuses on the complex processes and practices of meaning-making in early childhood education settings for under three-year-olds. She engages with a variety of methods to support her work, including the extensive and original use of ‘polyphonic video’ – and other means of visual ethnography, which emphasise ‘seeing’ as an interpretative event of ‘between-ness’. Jayne is co-Editor of the special Springer series ‘Infant Policy and Pedagogy’ launched in 2015, and, among other publications, has recently completed a sole authored book titled ‘Introducing dialogic pedagogy: Provocations for the early years’, with Routledge.

Bridgette Redder has a first class Masters. Her main area of research interest is infants and infant pedagogy. Presently, Bridgette is an infant teacher in a New Zealand Education and Care Centre, a Teaching Fellow of University of Waikato and is preparing for doctoral study.

Notes

1. New Zealand ECE-regulated minimum space is 2.5 square metre indoor and 5 square metre outdoor per child. The OECD average requirement for indoor space is 3.6 square metre for under three-year-olds (Pairman, 2011–2012). This centre exceeded these standards. The infant space is 72 square metres. There is a covered walkway that has plastic sides for wet weather that is 30 square metres and a covered deck which is 11 square metres. The garden space is 867 square metres. The babies have direct access to the outdoor garden and covered space and the doors are open constantly. There are two sleep rooms and an adjoining bathroom.

2. This approach is echoed in the UK legislation that highlights the need for very young children to form secure attachments with one or two ‘special’ adults (Elfer, Goldschmied, & Selleck, 2003), based on the premise that infants require intimate one-on-one caregiving relationships outside of the home for optimal attachment to occur. In NZ, this system is not regulated and neither is this ratio – the centre chose to exceed minimum standards in their commitment to quality ECE.

3. A three-year degree plus two years of registration, as well as considerable years of experience.

4. Paua shell is NZ's abalone – brightly coloured with purple, pink and blue hues.