Teacher voice for reflections on practice: using the voice-centred relational method to determine early childhood teachers’ understanding of spirituality

ABSTRACT

This article presents a methodological exercise using the voice-centred relational method to show how two Australian early childhood educators recognise and address spirituality in children’s learning and wellbeing. The relational voice-centred methodology is outlined and applied to two of the transcripts of participants from an exploratory project originally involving three educators. The analysis revealed that while these participants understood spirituality in ways consistent with the literature, there is a disconnect between key statements of the regulatory framework and their daily practice, leaving them uncertain as to how to reference and document this feature of children’s development.

KEYWORDS:

• Early childhood educators
• spirituality
• wellbeing
• voice-centred relational method

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Faculty of Arts and Education at Deakin University for supporting the project reported in this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Ethics obtained from Faculty of Arts and Education Human Ethics Advisory Group at Deakin University, approval number HAE-20-088.

2. Zoom was used as the medium through which to conduct the interviews to ensure that the project was designed to align with COVID-19 restrictions that were current at the time of conducting the research.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brendan Hyde

Brendan Hyde is a Senior Lecturer in Education (Pedagogy and Curriculum) and a member of the Religion, Society and Culture network at the Melbourne Burwood Campus of Deakin University. He has research interests in children’s spirituality and how this might be nurtured through education. He is the author of Children and Spirituality: Searching for Meaning and Connectedness (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London).

Elizabeth Rouse

Elizabeth Rouse is an Associate Professor in Education (Early Childhood) at the Melbourne Burwood Campus of Deakin University and has worked extensively in the area of young children’s wellbeing and pedagogical practices of early years teachers. Elizabeth’s research interests focus on partnership in education, teacher professional learning and infant and toddler pedagogy, and has a number of publications in these areas.