Editorial

Although I have participated in EECERA conferences since the early 1990s and been a keen reader of the EECERA journal still my heart gives an extra beat when a new issue of the blue journal drops in the post box. Without exception every new issue of the EECERA journal brings convincing and transgressing news. This is also valid for this issue.

The different topics presented by the authors in this issue of the journal may at first glance seem to differ from each other while they cover a wide range of topics, from teacher education, childhood professionalism over different content related topics like literacy, science, physical activities and ICT, to the quality of teacher–child interaction, early learning, parent training and how to study practices of leading. In addition, the 10 contributing authors bring together voices from countries with interesting variation in their early years traditions: from the Nordic countries (Denmark and Sweden) and other European countries (UK, Germany and Greece) to the US and Australia. However, on closer inspection despite this diversity, all authors and topics have a shared focus, namely, that from these different perspectives they bring new knowledge which directly or indirectly have the potential to create quality in children’s preschool lives.

I read the articles from a Danish (Nordic) perspective with a focus on the questions: is the represented knowledge a possible tool to enrich children’s lives, to support their well-being and learning? Can the knowledge pave the way for children’s active participation and influence and then create the next step for a necessary development of democracy? To enrich children’s lives, their well-being and learning and to extend democracy needs lots of different approaches: a well-functioning society and culture around the children, a supportive home environment, well-equipped preschools and educated preschool teachers, quality of teacher–child interactions and similar quality in the educational content, plus functional research tools – important topics which are, more or less, discussed in this issue of the journal.

To achieve educational quality and be able to support all children’s well-being and learning, among other things there is a need for educated staff and high professionalism, a goal orientated teaching which includes a focus on an educational content (subjects) and finally warm and empathic teacher–child interactions (Sylva et al. 2010).

The question about qualified preschool teachers is illuminated and discussed by Christian Winterbottom and Philip J. Mazzocco (US) in the article Reconstructing Teacher Education: A Praxeological Approach to Pre-service Teacher Education. The authors criticise the most common existing teacher education in the US for using the knowledge form ‘knowing for practice’ which is a dissemination of formal knowledge of theory, and ignoring practice-oriented forms of knowledge. In addition, most states license teachers based on their completion of knowledge tests rather than their good practice and interaction with children in the classroom. Thus the authors argue for a shift in teacher education by implementing a practice-orientation in teacher education, which was also carried through in a Midwest US university. Ninety preservice teacher students were actively involved using praxeological-learning in local schools. Based on Pascal and Bertram (2012), praxeological education and learning is contextual learning with people aimed to empower students to solve problems and to seek social transformation and transgress. The approach is rooted in Dewey, Freire and Wenger and seen from my perspective, is also related to action research and learning (Lewin 1958). Using both quantitative and qualitative research tools the author investigates the effect of the praxeological education and learning and, not surprisingly, the findings were successful. The student ‘believed that their praxeological-learning experiences provided a valuable contribution to the development of pedagogical skills, as well as fostered self-actualisation and social and moral development’. This result is in accordance with similar studies in Denmark involving almost 300 preschool teachers (Broström et al. 2016). You might conclude: do not waste children’s and professionals’ time with boring education but respect human beings as active participating subjects who want to influence their lives.

In continuation of the claim for teachers’ education and learning, in the article Knowledge, Practice, and the Shaping of Early Childhood Professionalism, Jim Hordern (UK) makes up theoretical constructions in order to develop a conception of early childhood professionalism that is grounded in an understanding of the importance of professional community and professional knowledge. The author describes a heady mix of governmental/organisation/bureaucratic approaches which aim at the development of early years professionalism. However, such a policy-driven pressure is in opposition to democratic, ground-up and agency orientated models of professionalism. Nevertheless, the article raises a complex numbers of factors which influence the development of early childhood professionalism. You might conclude that the development of a sustainable professionalism cannot be constructed without participation of the professional community, and I would say, without the involvement of preschool teachers' voices and actions.

Moving from a discussion of education and professionalism, Kiiko Ikegami and Corine Rivalland (Australia) focus on teacher–child interaction. In the article Exploring the Quality of Teacher–Child Interactions: The Soka Discourse in Practice the authors present an investigation of 12 early childhood educators’ interaction with children in Soka Nichiren Buddhism-oriented kindergartens. The research showed that the interactions are based on humanity dimensions, namely respect, compassion and unlimited potential of each child, which contributed to the quality of the teacher–child interaction. Thus, interestingly, the Soka Buddhist educators agree with the universal ideal expressed in most Western theories and early childhood practices.

However, empathic teacher–child interaction is not enough. It is not sufficient just to be together. Teacher and child are always together in an educational content which is emphasised in the traditional didactical triangle (Hopmann, Riquarts, and Westbury 2000). The content is both themes expressed by the children themselves and subjects like literacy, maths, nature and science, physical activity and aesthetical activities (e.g. painting, song and music, drama), as well as societal themes, for example Klafki (1996) emphasises so-called epoch typical problems such as peace and war, ecological crisis, socially determined inequality, etc.

The four articles which follow focus on different subjects.

In the article Practice Versus Politics in Danish Day-care Centres: How to Bridge the Gap in Early Learning?, Line Clasen and Kristine Jensen de López (Denmark) report on an investigation of the implementation of the first structured early literacy programme in Denmark. The so-called Book Fun programme consists of dialogical reading followed by conversations, drawing and play. The research shows that the dialogical reading approach might bridge the existing gap between the political demand and the actual educational practice.

In line with this, in the article A Socioeconomic Comparison of Emergent Literacy and Home Literacy in Australian Preschoolers, Michelle Neumann (Australia) found in her study that in lower socio-economic status (SES) parents’ literacy teaching, storybook-reading is less frequent compared with higher SES parents' literacy teaching, and thus lower SES children also performed more poorly on print skills. Therefore, she recommends more focused literacy programmes.

In the Nordic countries science activities are emerging in preschool practice (Broström 2015). Thus the study by Bodil Sundberg et al. about Understanding Preschool Emergent Science in a Cultural Historical Context Through Activity Theory is central. Six main characteristics were identified as shaping the activities: physical and sensory experiences, creative experiences, aesthetic experiences, imagination, play, and storytelling. In order to encourage a continued science development these characteristics can be seen as a possible pathway.

Another important subject, physical education, is discussed by Natalie Pape et al. (Germany) in the article Potentials of Physical Activity Promotion in Preschools – An Overview of Results of an Ethnographic Observation. The research team investigated the amount and quality of physical activities in preschools with and without systematic physical activity programmes. Not surprisingly, the research shows exemplary differences. Among other things, preschools with physical activity programmes have frameworks for rule-teaching, increased interactions and trust in interaction with children, more children’s self-efficacy and social competence were clearly expressed. No doubt goal-oriented education promotes educational quality.

Though teachers’ ability to interact empathetically with children and to handle subjects in daily life is important, many other factors influence educational quality. Among other things, the quality and the individual preschool is highly affected by the existence of a good leadership. More teachers need to have ICT knowledge, and they also should be able to communicate with parents and to support their parenting skills. These topics are found in the three last articles.

Based on the idea of the importance of leading, Karin Hognestad and Marit Bøe (Norway) in their article Studying Practices of Leading – Qualitative Shadowing in Early Childhood Research presents shadowing as a rather new research tool which includes both investigator triangulation and video observation. In addition, this method might be useful in many other research areas.

To support children’s well-being and learning teachers must co-operate with parents and find a common perspective. In many cases this calls for a more formal parent training, which Sarah-Jane Gerber et al. (UK) describe in the article Parent Training: Effectiveness of the Parents Plus Early Years Programme in Community Preschool Settings. Parent training is not common in Nordic early childhood settings and if Nordic teachers express a sceptical attitude, the result of this common research will reject such a suggestion. However, the research is promising: the training reduces parental stress and the parents achieve their parenting goals, plus they experience a reduction in child difficulties.

Finally, in the last article, ICT is the focus. In this article, Nicholas Zaranis and Vassilios Oikonomidis (Greece) investigate The Main Factors of the Attitudes of Greek Kindergarten Teachers Towards ICT. They found that teachers nowadays express a positive change of attitude towards ICT. In addition, teachers also have achieved knowledge on various software applications and they use computers at home during the week and also in the classroom during the teaching process.

In this issue of EECERJ, taken as a whole, the reader gets a substantial contribution of varied and interesting articles which show potential to help raise the quality of early childhood education and care.