Editorial

In last year's keynote presentation of the 27th EECERA conference by Michel Vandenbroeck (2017), he deconstructed the current political state of the world, the Early Childhood Education (ECE) research and policy status and eloquently reminded us ‘We are the Early Childhood community. It is us who has the power of choosing what discourse we prefer, what we wish to be dominant, what kind of truth we wish to construct … ’ Karlsson Lohmander (2017) adds to this by reminding us of ‘the increased marketisation of education and a neoliberal, outcomes-driven discourse … ’ (2017, 1). We seem to be repeating ourselves BUT we live at times when the use and misuse of scientific facts, and dominant single truths are simplistically used as evidence of quality, success, excellence and economic returns concealing authentic pedagogical ideologies. Regimes of Truths, as described by Foucault, narrow down our critical understanding of what is important and can bring change. ‘Pedagogy risks to being reduced to the development of effective methods to achieve the predefined goals … social pedagogy-is then reduced to the search for doing things right, while leaving out the question of what is the right thing to do’ (Vandenbroeck et al. 2017, 14). Evidenced-based practices such as cancer protocols (medicine) and management improvement plans (business), cannot be the guiding ‘ideology’ for how educational practice should work. And this is because

We need to expand our views about the interrelations among research, policy, and practice in order to keep in view the fact that education is a thoroughly moral and political practice, one that needs to be subject to continuous democratic contestation and deliberation. (Biesta 2007, 6)

Regimes of truth normalize and regulate our bodies, behaviors, and minds. Based on the current socio-political context we are living in, specific regimes of truth are produced to describe the Best and Effective Parent and Teacher who respond effectively and correctly to what it is expected from the child to excel and be academically successful (another regime of truth). Morals, ethics, values, and beliefs are fundamental aspects of educational practices and we expect ECE professionals to use critical judgement as ‘evidence’ to their decisions. The complexity of the ECE context and the diversity of the ECE learners and parents, enforce ECE professionals to endorse a reflective, relational, experiential and contextualized pedagogy. This volume of papers unfolds the multiplicity of the details involved in who, what, how and when children develop and learn to their full potential. The different articles touch upon elements that refer to children, parents and ECE professionals, all of the active participants and co-constructors of the learning communities which we embrace within the ECE field.

The ‘best’ parent

The following papers through systematic and in-depth analysis, with their findings unfold important details of parenting and parental involvement in children's educational experiences. These details are drawn from curricular documents, questionnaires about home daily activities and use of language, large sets of data on parents’ choices for child care and/or organized activities.

Janssen and Vandenbroeck explore how parental involvement is portrayed (interpreted and operationalized) through the analysis of 13 ECEC curricula from varied pedagogical orientations of different counties. Their outcomes suggest three distinct curricular approaches to parental involvement which highlight the following elements: (1) Creation of child-centered environments (2) Monitoring of developmental progress (3) Negotiation of pedagogical practices, (4) Ensuring smooth transitions and (5) Providing parental support. General conclusions suggest that some curricula unfold parental involvement as a means to prepare children transition to school, as democratic right in their child's school experience and one which combines the previous two.

Gunnerud, Reikeras and Dahle compare the language comprehension of monolingual toddler learners with different groups of dual language learners. With the use of authentic assessment observations by the ECE teachers and a parental questionnaire, the amount of language comprehension was examined. It is suggested that there is no difference in reference to the development of Norwegian language skills between the toddlers from majority speaking households and others that experience a combined use of mixture of Norwegian and minority language use. Contrary to previous studies this study suggests that active use of majority language have better results than the amount of parental exposure. Thus children who are actively involved in the use of the majority language in their homes have better outcomes than the ones whose parents are constantly exposing them to the majority language.

Gulzau investigates preschool children's participation in organized activities in Germany and highlights the reasons why children might have an unequal start when attending school. His research suggests that multiple factors such as culture, parents’ income, education, and occupation can affect their decisions. Results suggest that financial elements such as the mother's income and occupation can have an impact on whether children will attend afternoon activities. Elements which would narrow down children's opportunities to attend organized activities include a full-time working mother, a foreign mother or the number of siblings.

Burghardt's study explores the potential relevancy of a child's characteristics (e.g. temperament, early competencies, birth weight) and their attendance to child care during their infancy years. Findings suggest that the stronger predictor of early start is the belief that child care has a positive impact on the child's development. Additionally, elements such as difficult temperament, the mother's educational status, her income, and job importance affect the parents’ choice of early start. It is concluded that within the German ECEC system where the cost to have your child in child care is relatively low, child characteristics do not have a strong impact on the parental decision for an early start.

The above studies and their outcomes provide a powerful example of the importance of avoiding the search of one single truth, a protocol of practices or an improvement plan in reference to parents and parenting within the ECE setting. We caution that the picture of the Best Parent or the Best Decision cannot respond to the complexity and diversity of the lives, cultural capital (values and beliefs) and of course realities of each and every one of us. We need to take into account the diverse parental practices and acknowledge the contexts, countries, official policies, opportunities and expectations we set for each of us separately and collectively.

The ‘effective’ teacher

This group of papers also counteracts the illusionary pillar of the ‘effective’ teacher and the ‘what works’ in education. Specifically, these studies highlight the various and complex elements that allow or restrict teacher choices and decisions. Specifically, the authors describe ECE teachers professional identity underlining the integrity and ethical stance they need to exhibit (Loizou 2011), the emotional and relational essence of their interactions with the children, the continuous critical reflection of their practices, the in-depth documentation and authentic assessment of their work and children's learning and development.

Ribers unfolds how professional integrity and ethical perception of ECEC teachers can be supported and developed through learning practices that create a balance between theoretically and practically exploring dilemmas. It specifically explores the experiences of ECEC teachers with moral dilemmas and ethical intervention. There is reference to the courage needed to oppose to malpractice, as was exhibited by the pre-service student's case study, and ‘the plight to descent’ is considered as a professional obligation which is based on teachers’ professional ideas which subsequently lead to professionalism.

Dahle examines whether 33 months old learners who were referred to the Psychology Services for weak language skills or weak social skills show co-existing weak skills in the other area and whether these difficulties could be detected earlier. Findings show that a third of the children with language difficulties and more than half of the children with social difficulties exhibited co-existing difficulties at 33 months. Several factors are pinpointed by the author to explain why such difficulties are not detected earlier: a. unsuccessful intervention programs, b. the ‘wait and see’ approach, c. parental denial, d. inclusion policy, and e. natural development. It is concluded that teachers should observe both developmental aspects when one is noted as problematic.

Kim explores how the work of ECE teachers in the context of U.S.A and specifically in Head Start sites, changes when implementing the Teaching Strategies Gold assessment system. She unfolds the changes in their roles and actual work through multiple individual interviews during the time they begun to implementation of the specific online assessment tool. Teachers were worried about their insufficient training, lack of knowledge of the content of the tool, and lack of time to respond to the deadlines. Nevertheless, it was noted that it would be beneficial for the children and the teachers in the future. The use of the specific tool made the teachers feel competent professionals, since they were documenting children's learning and development, and also that their work was being recognized.

Cekaite and Bergnehr unfold relational care by deconstructing the different aspects of touch teachers in Swedish child care (1–5 year olds) exhibit during their interactions. Interestingly their video recorded naturalistic observations suggest that affectionate and controlling touch are employed in a variety of situations such as a. a means to soothe and comfort children, b. to control and direct a child's bodily actions, and c.to sustain positive relationships during challenging situations. This study supports that physical contact is crucial for relationships contrary to ideas that expect teachers to be emotionally distant as part of their professional identity.

Sadownik aims to unfold the experiences and participation in ECEC activities of Polish children during their transition to Norway. Specifically, through interviews the children were asked to describe in the form of narratives their experiences in Norway and their transition to the school system. Findings show that experiences which support belonging and participation are crucial in easing children's transition, and play is suggested as an essential context that can successfully support children in this process. It is concluded that teachers need to take into consideration children's capital and employ a variety of pedagogical approaches.

Montes, Reynolds Weber, Infurna, Van Wagner, Zimmer and Hightower provide us a report which shows how the factor structure of the ECERS-3, a well-known measure used to assess classroom quality, was tested. Specifically, a secondary analysis based on the implementation of the ECERS-3 by 148 preschool teachers in urban classrooms was conducted and it was noted that it did not ‘replicate in confirmatory factor analyses’. Thus, the authors caution us to be careful in interpreting the results of the specific tool and suggest that it is important to use an independent evaluation of measures before they are used to make high stakes decisions.

Complexity, diversity and fluidity are facets of democratic educational practices and

The challenge is to provide a space where new possibilities can be explored and realized through enlarging the reflexive and critical ways of knowing, through construction rather than reproduction of knowledge, through enabling children [and adults] to work creatively to realize the possibilities and handle anxiety. It can contribute to the emergence of a pluralistic patchwork quilt of co-existing world views and life experiments. (Dahlberg, Moss, and Pence 1999, 56)

The European Early Childhood Education organization and its journal are committed to providing participatory, democratic processes within a framework of ethical principles creating space for pluralistic epistemologies thus allowing all of us researchers, policy makers, teacher educators and practitioners to be critical of the what, how, when and who is ‘effective’ and ‘works’, as is the case with this specific volume of papers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.