Collective interpretations of early science learning about Earth and Space: a cultural-historical study of family settings for scientific imagination

ABSTRACT

Depending upon a cultural-historical perspective, where play is defined as the creation of an imaginary situation, this study seeks to examine whether and how family joint creation of imaginary situations can provide the conditions for a child’s science learning in early childhood. The paper reported here forms part of a broader study, and the focus of this paper is about a three-year-old child and his family from Mainland China. The parents were invited to take part in the digital video observations of the child’s everyday family play and learning, as well as the analysis of the visual data together with the researchers. A total of 35.66 h of video data were collected including 11.6 h of videos (51 clips) videoed by the parents and 4.24 h of parents’ participated data analysis in the form of family interview. The finding reveals that parents’ joint creation of imaginary situations was the child’s preferred social form when exploring the science concepts. Guided by the cultural-historical approach, the researchers entered into the family activity settings and the parents were also invited into the researchers’ activity settings. As such, the parents’ perspective was revealed in their roles as the research participants and co-researchers. This resulted in the collective interpretation of a child’s science learning which the family had offered.

KEYWORDS:

• Imaginary situation
• family
• scientific imagination
• science concepts

Acknowledgments

A special gratitude is directed to the children Yao and his family. The authors also sincerely thank to the Cultural-Historical Research Community for supporting this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yijun Hao

Yijun Hao is a PhD researcher in Early Childhood Education at Monash University. She is a reviewer of International Research in Early Childhood Education. Her current research focuses on young children’s development of concepts associated with their engagement in imaginary play at home. Her research interests include: concepts formation, play, family play, scientific thinking and child’s development of concepts using cultural-historical theory.

Professor Marilyn Fleer holds the Foundation Chair of Early Childhood Education at Monash University, Australia, and is the immediate past President of the International Society for Cultural Activity Research (ISCAR). Her research interests focus on early years learning and development, with special attention on pedagogy, play, culture, science and design and technology.