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Relational pedagogy in early childhood education. What does the literature tell us?

Research project: Relational pedagogy in early childhood education. What does the literature tell us?

Researcher: Dr Theodora Papatheodorou

Synopsis: Relationships are crucial throughout life and transcend time, geographical, cultural and discipline boundaries and it is even more so at children’s early stages of life. Indeed, relationship formation is at the heart of early childhood care and education curricula and practices and well-ingrained in the consciousness of early years educators.

While philosophical and cultural notions of existence in the world converse with evidence from neuroscience about child development and the values and practices of early years educators, the field of early years education is at an early stage in conceptualising and empirically exploring the relational and social nature of pedagogy. It was only in the early 2000s that relationships started to be investigated from a pedagogical perspective and the term relational pedagogy emerged in the field of early childhood education.

A literature review has been conducted aiming to compile an annotated bibliography and to map the field of relational pedagogies since the early 2000s. Two research questions were posed:

1. What literature is currently available about relational pedagogies in early childhood education?
2. What does current literature tell us about the conceptualisation and application of relational pedagogies in early childhood education?

• To locate the relevant literature the following inclusion criteria were established:
• Publications from 2000s onwards only
• Children’s age up to 8 years old
• Early childhood educational provision of different types
• Conceptual papers, empirical research papers, practice-focused papers, books and edited volumes
• Conceptual papers of relevance to education in general.

Papers which focused on older age groups in education were excluded.

The literature review revealed that the field of relational pedagogy is still at its infancy, but encouragingly more publications have appeared during the last five years. Conceptually, relational pedagogy is explored and advocated from an ontological perspective, meaning that human experience is understood in relation to others, underpinned by a dynamic mutuality, affectivity and ethics of care that are realised through dialogical encounters.

From empirical research, relational pedagogy is understood in terms of early years educators’ accepting and caring attitude; establishing personal relationships and connection before exercising professional roles; enabling children’s socialisation and learning; providing reassurance and validation; being knowledgeable; exercising common knowledge and relational agency; knowing children’s interests and working closely with families. Creating joyful experiences that enable dialogue, mutuality, and reciprocity are key features of relational pedagogies.

The existing literature revealed that there are recurrent overlapping as well as divergent themes, illustrating the multi-layered and multi-faceted complexity of relation formation, revealing the challenges in articulating a relational pedagogy epistemology at a conceptual and applied practice level. However, articulating a relational pedagogy epistemology is crucial for understanding the nature of relationships developed in a professional capacity as opposed to relationships established in a personal capacity in familial and friendship context.

Relationality in a professional capacity may overlap with personal relationships, but it is different too. Relationality in a professional capacity is subject to certain personal and institutional conditions and circumstances and requires a range of competencies which could be developed and enhanced though training. Such competencies, however, can often be indeterminable, requiring a high level of awareness and alertness on the part of the early years educators.

Acknowledgements: With thanks to Bogdan Dragomir, Graduate Research Intern at Norland, who assisted with the initial literature searches and preliminary review of selected papers.

Funding: The Graduate Research Internship was funded by Norland Foundation.

Dissemination
• Papatheodorou, T. Relational Pedagogies in Early Childhood Education – Annotated Bibliography (submitted for review)
• Papatheodorou, T. Relational pedagogies in early childhood education: Mapping the field (Paper submitted)
• Papatheodorou, T. Relational pedagogies in early childhood education. Conceptualisation, implications for practice, and the challenges for evaluation, Webinar at Aristoteleio University, Thessaloniki Greece, 7 May 2022 (Title in Greek: Σχεσιοδυναμική παιδαγωγική στην προσχολική αγωγή και εκπαίδευση: Θεωρητική προσέγγιση, πρακτικές εφαρμογές και η πρόκληση αξιολόγησης)

What are the perceived benefits of students participating in a voluntary sewing group?

Research project: What are the perceived benefits of students participating in a voluntary sewing group?

Researcher: Kate Jaeger

Synopsis: The benefits of engaging in arts and crafts, including sewing, have been well documented in the literature. Learning a new skill, meeting new people, engaging in a relaxing activity are all things that are cited in the literature and I have personally experienced and observed others enjoying, as a sewing lecturer.

There is research exploring the benefits of arts and crafts with various minority groups, but not specifically with sewing and students. This triggered my research project. At the beginning of 2020, I approached first year students at Norland College to offer them the opportunity to attend a 6-week, voluntary sewing group.

My aim was to trial a sewing programme to refine and finalise for its implementation with other groups in the wider community and research the perceived benefits of students attending the group. The sewing programme was delivered over a period of six weeks. Fourteen students participated in the programme. Ethical approval was received before conducting the research project.

I used case study action research methodology to address the aims of the study Methods of collecting data included a weekly diary, completed by students and a reflective diary kept myself. Qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis and descriptive statistics were used for quantitative data.

The demographic of Norland students

Research project: The demographic of Norland students

Researcher: Dee Burn

Supported by: Kexin Cheng (Graduate Research Intern)

Synopsis: This 12-month project aims to develop a rich understanding of Norland students as they embark on the first steps of their Norland journey from first point of contact through to enrolment. It will look at Norland student demographics compared to the national picture of undergraduate students in the early years and related subject areas. The project will also focus in on student motivations, aspirations and their key questions and concerns prior to beginning their studies at Norland. Widening participation will also be considered in line with Norland’s commitment to finding and supporting those who will make the very best early years practitioners regardless of age, gender, disability, ethnic or socio-economic background. The project aims to produce a set of detailed student personas that will inform and guide Norland’s recruitment, teaching and learning, student support and lifelong career support activities.

An examination of viva as an assessment tool for work-based assessment in early childhood undergraduate studies

Research project: An examination of viva as an assessment tool for work-based assessment in early childhood undergraduate studies

Researcher: Tom Parsons

Supported by: Juliane Buchheit (Graduate Research Intern)

The neuroscience of play: a scoping study

Research project: The neuroscience of play: a scoping study

Researchers: Dr Janet Rose and Lucie Wheeler

Project duration: 2021

Synopsis: Neuroscience research has been present for many years now, however the emerging branch of Neuroeducation – brain science focused on child development and learning – has created a need to explore in further depth the workings of a child’s brain. Whilst the literature is starting to grow around brain development in children, there is little that shows what happens in a child’s brain when they are engaging in play-based activities and learning. Many claims have been made about the benefits of play for young children’s learning and development largely based on observational or self-reporting research.  However, there is an opportunity for the neurosciences to offer additional insights and confirmatory evidence about the impact play has on learning.  This will enable adults to understand more effectively how they might create an optimal environment for young children’s brains and their role within this.  This project has undertaken  an extensive search of the current literature around neuroscience and play in order to ascertain what already exists and what next steps might be needed in terms of future research.

A scoping literature review was carried out on Norland’s online platform Discovery. Findings were extracted and inserted into a summarised table format where a thematic analysis was carried out to analyse and code the findings and create themes to give further searches direction.

The following issues emerged from the scoping study:

• There are limited studies in this area, at least in part due to ethical implications of the type of research required.
• Physical, social, thematic and dramatic play all aid in brain development, specifically Rough-and-Tumble play (RTP) which aids in decoding emotions and helps foster a sense of safety whilst developing the social brain.
• Adults and the environment are critical for the developing child. The interactions between adult and child, and the environment in which these interactions take place, are a crucial catalyst in how that child’s brain develops.
• The architecture of the brain is established in the early years by both genetic and environmental influences. The brain is hardwired to perform tasks such as breathing, circulation and reflexes, and softwired to adapt to external stimuli and develop further. Animal studies have supported the idea of play influencing the brain development of children.

Implications

• Further research is required to explore this topic in more depth via a wider range of outputs.
• Adults need to be better supported to learn and develop their understanding of research from the neurosciences and how they can help.
• Policy makers should acknowledge the importance of the adult and environment on brain development and support the industry accordingly.

Outputs: Project report

Dissemination

• Abstract submitted for a paper publication in a research journal
• Conference paper in preparation for submission to an international conference

Funding: The project was funded by Norland Foundation for the recruitment of a Graduate Research Intern