In the course of a study on the impacts of changing early childhood policy in Aotearoa New Zealand since 1989, the illustrations accompanying three major government reports and policies stood out as encapsulating the changes in underlying discourses. This enabled the illustrations from these three policy reports to be used for a historical…

The overarching interest of this study concerns how to outline learning opportunities and support in early childhood education (ECE) without losing its play-based character. More specifically, the study reports an empirical investigation into the evolving activity of a 6.5-year-old child and an adult conversing about the child's drawing of…

This study examined seasonal differences in children's segmented-day physical activity (PA) and time engaged in sedentary activities. Seventy-three children wore a pedometer during winter and spring and completed a diary relating to their after-school sedentary activities and time playing outside. Children recorded higher steps in spring compared…

Even though studies of the accessibility of digital technologies in educational contexts have become progressively more extensive, understanding children's motive for play or for learning is essential for identifying the way they relate to touch technology. This research paper seeks to understand the relation between the motive for play and the…

In this paper, drawing on Bakhtin's carnival theory, I argue that teachers can play a transgressive role--similar to that of the carnival fool--by taking on a story role and by interacting with the children in the drama convention of Teacher-in-Role. The carnival notion of 'decrowning-crowning' allows me to understand how the teachers disguise and…

The findings from this study suggest that 2-year-old children regularly use mark making as a tool to further support their emergent thoughts and understanding of the world. The qualitative study of three 2-year-old children uses observations and informal interviews to construct narrative stories of their explorations and play both at nursery and…

This paper conceptualizes the teaching and learning of physically active play (PAP) in the early childhood curriculum. The conceptualization emerges from 'doing complexivist bricolage' and draws on complexity thinking features and concepts to position teaching and learning in PAP as children and teachers together exploring three different and…

Global flows and their geopolitical power relations powerfully shape the environments in which children lead their everyday lives. Children's images, imaginations and ideas of distant places are part of these global flows and the everyday activities children perform in preschool. Research explores how through curricula young children are moulded…

This study is about contemporary Korean parents' social tensions and the cultural meanings around digital play. Through interviews with 13 middle-class Korean parents, they discussed their perspectives on digital play, including their views of popular culture, high-technology, and learning, which created inner conflicts and negotiations with their…

Collaboration is an important aspect of social activity associated with young children's digital gameplay. Children organise their participation as they communicate with and support one another, through sharing knowledge and problem-solving strategies, displaying their expertise, encouraging others and creatively exploring possibilities for…

In this article, we present a framework for exploring participation in and social stratification of movement culture based on Pierre Bourdieu's concept logic of practice. The background to our approach is Lars-Magnus Engström's struggle to understand the impact of social stratification on participation in movement culture in a now nearly…

Kindergarten teachers face the challenge of balancing traditional developmental programming and contemporary academic standards. In classrooms following a play-based learning framework, academic content such as literacy is to be taught within children's play. However, educators have reported conceptual and practical challenges with integrating…

The present study examined maternal responses to infants' spontaneous communicative behaviors in a sample of 20 extremely-low-gestational-age (ELGA) infants and 20 full-term (FT) infants during 30 minutes of play interaction when infants were 12 months of age. Relations between maternal responses and infants' communication skills at 12 and 24…

In response to the authors, I demonstrate how threshold concepts offer a means to both contextualise teaching and learning of quantum physics and help transform students into the culture of physics, and as a way to identify particularly troublesome concepts within quantum physics. By drawing parallels from my own doctoral research in another area…

Offering an in-depth exploration of the distinctive features of the play development and learning of toddlers, this book provides useful materials, strategies and tools that can be used by practitioners supporting toddlers at this significant age. The book explores the context and concepts of wellbeing and is ideal for early years practitioners,…