rss_2.0Sciendo RSS Feed for Journal of Pedagogyhttps://sciendo.com/journal/JPEDhttps://www.sciendo.comhttps://sciendo-parsed.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/64722f57215d2f6c89dbee3d/cover-image.jpghttps://sciendo.com/journal/JPED140216https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2024-0001<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The paper discusses the issue of homework in primary education in Slovakia. It attempts to contribute to uncovering the homework narrative that is created and used by its teaching staff and to relate it to the discourse on homework and its place in education in the Anglo-American environment. The research used content analysis of the written products of 30 participants (teachers, educators in children’s school clubs, and teacher’s assistants). Data processing and analysis were carried out by thematic analysis. The results, concentrated in four topics, showed that the homework narrative in primary education is based on homework support. It clearly resonates with the teacher’s expectation of the involvement of the pupils’ parents in its completion. However, it is without the methodical support of the parents from the school. Part of the discourse is also the teachers’ prescription taking into account, particularly, the appropriate number of tasks, their attractiveness, an individual approach when assigning them, and the comprehensibility of homework for all persons involved. Such a setting should reflect potential inequalities between pupils concerning their family background. The narrative revealed details the semantics of school-family relations and the pedagogical strategies of teachers in primary education.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2024-00012024-07-15T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2024-0004<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>More and more experts from the social sciences are appearing in the media to provide expert opinions on media coverage of events and social issues. However, with regard to the conditions under which media content is produced, a growing number of voices have been pointing to the fact that quasi-experts with a media interest tend to speak more in the media than scientifically trained scholars. This article conducts an analysis of media outputs to examine whether this criticism is relevant to the field of education in the Czech media landscape, and the analysis shows that in almost half of cases the so-called “education experts” commenting on education in the media were quasi-experts – people to whom the authority and status to speak on education is attributed by the media – rather than scholarly experts. The analysis results in a classification of experts on education speaking in the Czech media – they usually choose similar rhetoric and accentuate only selected educational topics.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2024-00042024-07-15T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2024-0002<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Self-regulated learning is a multifaceted process that involves cognitive, metacognitive, motivational, affective, and behavioural components. These components are interconnected and influenced by contextual factors that shape the overall learning experience. Self-regulated learning empowers students to take control of their learning by utilising effective learning techniques, engaging in metacognitive processes, and fostering motivation and self-efficacy beliefs. The goal of the article is to explore the importance of self-regulated learning in enhancing students’ academic performance and fostering a deep understanding of the learning material. Specifically, this research article explores the utilisation of learning techniques and strategies (LTSs) among pedagogy students, investigating their patterns and preferences for self-studying. The analysis of survey responses from a sample of 76 pedagogy students revealed that the most commonly used LTSs are rereading, note-taking, memorising, and highlighting. The utilisation of LTSs that are empirically considered effective, such as distributed practice, practice testing, and elaborative interrogation, was found to be extremely low. Moreover, the study revealed a lack of comprehensive training in learning techniques and strategies in pedagogy programmes, suggesting that current teachers are not adequately trained to create optimal classroom contexts for developing flexible self-regulatory skills in students. The findings highlight that by incorporating these practices into curriculum, future educators can empower their students to become active learners who select the appropriate strategies and reflect on their learning process. This paper contributes to an understanding of self-regulated learning and the implications of self-regulated learning for educational practices.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2024-00022024-07-15T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2024-0003<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Since the introduction of new legislation in 2016, questions of inclusive policy have been constantly discussed not only in schools, but also among professionals, parents, and politicians. This article is part of a larger research survey mapping the state of inclusive education at all Czech Republic secondary schools. It presents the results for two regions in order to show what attitudes and views are held by principals on the implementation of inclusion in the education system. The research was carried out as a qualitative study and semi-structured interview were employed as the research method. The obtained data were analysed using the grounded theory method. The results show that inclusion is not generally accepted by school principals. There are schools that are very pro-inclusive, but there are also schools that fundamentally reject inclusion. Initial assumptions that inclusion has been best received by general secondary schools were not confirmed. On the contrary, it turns out that the type of school does not matter as much as the attitudes of the seniors’ pedagogical staff towards inclusion. Their behaviour and attitudes significantly influence the whole school climate, which is passed on to all actors as well as how the school functions overall in working with pupils with special needs.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2024-00032024-07-15T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-0013<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Generativity, manifested through interest in and commitment to the development of future generations, is a relevant dimension of teaching culture.</p> <p><italic>Objective:</italic> To characterize the personal and professional development manifested by educators working in rural schools in Chile.</p> <p><italic>Method:</italic> An interpretative-qualitative approach was adopted, based on an exploratory, cross-sectional and non-experimental design. The purposive sample consisted of 18 educators with an average age of 60 and with 33 years of professional experience in rural schools in the Metropolitan, Araucanía and Los Ríos regions (Chile). For the data collection, in-depth interviews were conducted from a narrative-generative perspective. The narratives were analyzed by means of content analysis.</p> <p><italic>Results:</italic> Four categories were identified relating to generativity: significant life experiences, pedagogical dimensions of generative development, generative-expansive adulthood and personal formation. The implications of generativity for teaching practice and the way in which it shapes the educational legacy that transcends school space and time are discussed.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-00132023-12-29T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-0009<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This research aims to explore how school principals determine whether they have low-performing teachers among their staff. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 principals in Chilean public schools. The qualitative research entailed an inductive approach, along with an interview methodology and content analysis to investigate the research questions. Principals rely on three main sources of information to identify low performing teachers: classroom observations carried out by principals and senior leaders, parents’ complaints and students’ comments. However, there is no single common approach for identifying low-performing teachers, even within the same school district. This study is the first to report on low-performing teachers in Chile from the perspective of school principals.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-00092023-12-29T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-0012<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>By complying with their “job”, i.e., completing the tasks set for them by teachers, pupils develop their subject skills. They do this in a classroom setting where they can perceive each other regarding their abilities. Besides content learning, pupils, thus, also have to position themselves emotionally and action-practically towards the content-based tasks in the class context. Which corresponding reaction patterns are observable is an open research question, especially concerning the comparison between pupils taught curriculum-accordantly and those with special educational needs in learning (SEN-L) when educated in inclusive classrooms. Therefore, for this preliminary study, twenty semi-structured interviews were examined, in which the pupils were asked about what and how they had learned in the previous lessons. Data analyses were carried out using a mixed-methods approach. Distinct positioning patterns could be reconstructed, which were not strictly linked to the pupils’ level of content understanding. Furthermore, there were no significant differences between the positioning patterns of pupils with and without SEN-L, which could also be due to the comprehensive use of differentiated instruction methods in the respective lessons. In about half of the interviews, reaction patterns emerged that indicated superficially compliant participation in class but inward distancing.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-00122023-12-29T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-0010<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Despite the progress in education in recent years, the marginalization of students identified as having special educational needs (SEN) persists. Students characterized as having SEN is one of the factors that could change the status quo and lead to greater inclusion. The current research project adopted a mixed methodology to investigate this possibility. The research was conducted in five secondary schools in Cyprus, and 138 people participated. As the research is now complete, we can conclude that carers of students characterized as having SEN can act as mentors of both SEN children and non-SEN childrens</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-00102023-12-29T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-0014<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The instrumentality and standardization of education may be important for functioning in contemporary societies. However, reducing education to measurable competencies may result in the loss of human value. Indeed, education becomes real when it relates to the reality of individuals. Existentialist education focuses on students’ freedom and agency; however, it is criticized for not having coherent and convincing educational guides. This analytical comparison paper argues that the premises of Existentialism and the components of metacognition may interact. While metacognitive awareness and thinking for essence lays the ground for individuality and autonomy, metacognitive knowledge relates to self-knowledge and not accepting ready-made concepts through self-questioning and dialogic encounters. Also, metacognitive experiences might mimic existential crises where individuals engage in highly conscious thinking during which metacognitive knowledge and regulation simultaneously help the individual deal with failure or anxiety. During such experiences, metacognitive regulation might facilitate individuals’ free choices and responsible engagement when building the self or handling difficulties. In this sense, enhancing metacognition may help individuals’ transition to the existing phase by building adequate self-knowledge and regulating thinking. This paper, finally, describes a set of pedagogies for fostering metacognition that could potentially facilitate existential attitudes or behaviors in mainstream classrooms.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-00142023-12-29T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-0011<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The paper deals with the work of the Czech children’s author Jaroslav Foglar from a gender perspective, reflecting on two themes in particular: the absence of heroines; and his understanding of boys’ reciprocity and friendship with the adoration of physicality. The impetus for this analysis was data from a questionnaire survey, the aim of which was to determine which aspects of Jaroslav Foglar’s work are most appreciated by readers and which they think apply to real life. The quantitative analysis of the data (n=1174) did not reveal any statistically significant differences in the men’s and women’s responses; however, the qualitative analysis of the open-ended statements is illustrative of the underrepresentation of girls among literary heroes. The diverse ways in which Foglar’s work captures friendships between boys allow even today’s readers to expand their perceptions of masculinity beyond traditionally defined boundaries.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-00112023-12-29T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-0006<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Transition to school is recurrently pointed out as key to children’s immediate well-being at school start, as well as to their long-term educational endeavors. Aspirations towards continuity during transition is a common denominator across research, policy, and practice, in Denmark as well as internationally. This theoretical-conceptual paper problematizes continuity as a fluent or empty signifier within the transition field. This implies that, within transition theory and practice, the question of how continuity may be institutionally organized, as well as professionally facilitated, is a complex issue. By highlighting how Danish transition practices instantiate an ambivalence between a Nordic, child-centered kindergarten legacy from Fröbel, and an Angloamerican approach to academic accomplishments, the question of continuity is theoretically problematized. This leads to a socio-culturally informed discussion of change as a constitutive factor in transition, and of continuity as a matter of children’s trajectories of experience, learning, and development across divergent institutional settings. The findings imply a fundamental questioning of ambitions towards smoothing out transitions as a means for ensuring continuity. This has the implication that, within the fundamentally ambivalent Danish early childhood educational landscape, change and transformation may be valorized, rather than merely problematized. In addition, continuity may be approached as a matter of children’s trajectories of sense-making across diverse institutional settings. This reconceptualization may also inspire international transition practices.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-00062023-07-22T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-0007<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The aim of the article is to analyse aesthetic encounters in Danish early childhood and care (ECEC) centres and create knowledge of and a language for aesthetics as sensitive encounters and vibrant matters between humans and the world. The article thus challenges traditional assumptions about and understandings of aesthetics as simply impression, expression, and rather formal hands-on work (also referred to as ‘aesthetic learning processes’). The article links to fieldwork taking place in two Danish ECEC centres – a kindergarten (3–5-year-olds) and an age-integrated centre for kindergarten groups and nursery groups (0–2-year-olds). The fieldwork is framed as focused ethnography, and the methods used are written and visual field notes (video recording, photos) and interviews with artists who visited the ECEC centres and worked with the pedagogues. In the analysis process, the author revisits the empirical data and dwells on micro-moments that, in the article, are sampled into vignettes. With and through theoretical perspectives related to aesthetics as sensitive, vibrant, intra-active, and entangled encounters with materiality, new insights appear and lead to findings that highlight aesthetics as subtle and informal processes engaging materiality as a symmetric co-player alongside the artists and pedagogues and in support of children’s aesthetic agency.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-00072023-07-22T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-0002<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>In Danish early childhood education and care (ECEC), pedagogues traditionally work in a child-centred manner, valuing the children’s experiences. During the last 150 years pedagogues have developed expertise in framing everyday life for children while paying double attention to the children’s perspectives, on one hand, and to their own pedagogical interests, on the other. Therefore, play and experiments are essential components of Danish ECEC. This article starts from this pedagogical tradition and explores if and how researchers can benefit from employing such double attentiveness and use it to bridge the gap between encountering children’s perspectives and making those perspectives an object of investigation. The empirical materials were derived from a pilot study. Pivotal to this study was the exploration of play experiments as an encounter between children, pedagogues and researchers in which the children’s different perspectives could emerge. The findings suggest that play experiments can be effective as a child-sensitive research approach that enhances children’s embodied knowledge and promotes children’s participation in research. However, methodological questions are raised concerning how to maintain the children’s perspectives and transforming their embodied knowledge into empirical data. Also, the need for further exploration of play experiments as a space for collaborative encounters is appointed.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-00022023-07-22T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-0004<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The aim of the article is to support critical consideration about what quality is and might be in ECEC. It argues that two different quality cultures – understandings of what quality is, how it may be understood and supported – intersect and create tensions in relation to the ECEC area in Denmark. One is analyzed as influenced by a transnational quality discourse, a specific regime of truth regarding quality as a phenomenon “out there” that must be defined and assessed to improve. This technical-instrumental quality culture needs to be balanced by a quality culture founded in pedagogy as a distinct perspective foundational for ECEC. Drawing on a continental tradition of pedagogy as a human science discipline the article offers a language and understanding of <italic>pedagogical qualities.</italic> Such qualities refer to the attributes of pedagogy and go beyond what is easily disregarded as subjective in the prevailing quality culture. To identify such pedagogic qualities the article revisits empirical data from a narrative research project that explored pedagogic knowledge at play in ECEC professionals’ practice. The article argues that a critical quality culture founded in thoughtful consideration and ethical balancing of pedagogical qualities is crucial for the sake of the children and our democratic society.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-00042023-07-22T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-0001<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This special issue presents a selection of current research on Danish early childhood education and care (ECEC) aimed at an international audience. The Nordic tradition of child-centred, local and holistic pedagogy is dominant within the Danish educational culture, but the Danish pedagogical approach is the focus of an ongoing dialogue involving political preoccupations with ECEC quality and what is best for the children’s development and learning. Since 2004, Danish ECEC settings have been obliged to work on children’s learning based on a pedagogical curriculum organised around six previously established themes prepared at each local ECEC centre according to specific guidelines. In 2018, a more detailed description of the content of the curriculum and a common pedagogical foundation was introduced in a strengthened curriculum – partly because the previous curriculum led institutions too far away from the existing pedagogical culture. The strengthened curriculum points to key elements such as play, child-centredness, communities of children and a broad concept of learning – to constitute the understanding and approach to work on children’s well-being, learning, development and formation in ECEC. New research from Danish professionals is presented, revolving around key areas in the strengthened curriculum in order to invite further dialogue with international colleagues about children’s play, fun and well-being, quality cultures, children’s communities, transitions, aesthetics and vulnerability.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-00012023-07-22T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-0005<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>From a child-centered perspective, this article explores the practices of children’s self-organized play-communities in institutional everyday life in Danish early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings, based on a phenomenological non-participant-observational study with a duration of 16 months involving two kindergartens (Bernstorff, 2021). Drawing on Bourdieu’s reflexive sociology and praxeology, children’s self-organized play-communities are analyzed as a social space, being a field for relations, fights, negotiations with specific admission requirements emerging as accepted values shared by the specific field. The analysis demonstrates that self-organized play-communities are a social space with its own practices of <italic>being together</italic> expressed through <italic>the social language in play</italic> linked to and guided by an <italic>institutional choreography</italic>. Besides, the analysis demonstrates three kinds of different communities of children in self-organized play, viz. the categories: <italic>Relational play-communities, Community-oriented play-communities, and Conflictual play--communities</italic>, which categories may, however, also overlap into blended categories. The article argues that children’s self-organized play-communities risk being under pressure in the institutional choreography, which in turn affects children’s opportunities for having uninterrupted periods of time and space to self-organized play in their institutional everyday life.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-00052023-07-22T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-0003<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>In Danish early childhood education and care (ECEC), fun is often emphasised as a key pedagogical tool but is used rather unreflexively. While well-being and happiness have been studied in various ways, the potential of fun is not included in theoretical discussions regarding happiness and well-being, although most people identify having fun as a fundamental reason for being happy. A researcher and three student assistants spent six months in three ECEC settings with a focus on episodes characterised by fun and laughter. Participant observation and interviews were conducted. Empirical data illustrate how fun appears in ECEC as laughter, smiles, attentiveness, intensity and ecstasy. Fun arises momentarily in a sense of lightness and freedom, as a means of communication, in physical play, when rules and expectations are broken, in frivolous references to lower body functions and in experiences of excitement. Pedagogues use fun based on child sensitivity, improvisation, courage to let go of control, informality, energy and a sense of humour. Danish humour philosophy distinguishes between small humour and big humour. Pedagogues with the ability to practice big humour are preferred in order to establish an ECEC culture characterised by fun, laughter and episodes of small humour that promote well-being in children.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-00032023-07-22T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-0008<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The conceptualisation of vulnerability among Danish pedagogues in the context of early childhood education and care (ECEC) is framed by both Danish legislation (Dagtilbudsloven, 2020) and key pedagogical concepts such as <italic>well-being, learning, development</italic> and <italic>formation</italic> (Ministry of Children and Education, 2020). Employing a phenomenological approach, this study investigated how pedagogues perceive vulnerability through interviews conducted with 15 informants. Drawing on Abbott’s key concepts of jurisdiction, diagnosis, inference and treatment, the collected data are operationalised to discern pedagogues´ different understandings of vulnerability. The findings highlight the inherent ambiguity surrounding pedagogues’ comprehension of vulnerability, closely tied to their primary responsibilities within the ECEC setting, namely, promoting well-being, facilitating learning, fostering development and enabling formation. The implications of the study shed light on the challenges faced by pedagogues in identifying vulnerability within ECEC, which encompasses both “traditional” and “new” understandings. Pedagogues tend to focus on detecting individual factors, such as personality traits and developmental disorders, or contextual factors related to a child’s family background, without considering the institutional context as a potential source of vulnerability production. This study emphasises the importance of re-evaluating current approaches to vulnerability detection in ECEC, particularly with regard to children in vulnerable positions.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2023-00082023-07-22T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2018-0010<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p>Analysing teaching-practice offers an opportunity to answer questions like what is critical to making a pedagogy democratic, what are the factors that support a teacher to be critical in her teaching? Or what restricts the teacher in being critical in her work? This paper seeks to address some of these questions by presenting the findings of an investigation into the practice of teachers who are committed to the idea of critical pedagogy. The scope of the study is limited to understanding the critical aspects that are related to the teacher’s work within the classroom. The paper analyses the theoretical arguments that are relevant to critical pedagogy in relation to teachers’ practices as they emerged during the study. The study, conducted in the South Indian state of Kerala, reveals that teacher subjectivity and schooling situations interact in a dialectical fashion to shape the nature of classroom teaching. The political subjectivity of the teachers, shaped by their close interaction with the Kerala Science Literature Movement (KSSP) makes their pedagogy critical in nature. On the other hand, the standardized curriculum and mechanically disciplined school environment continuously challenge the teachers’ efforts at being critical in their work.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2018-00102019-03-07T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2018-0009<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p>The sphere of early childhood education care (ECEC) in the Czech Republic has diversified enormously in the last decade. The article describes this diversification process and, drawing on focus group data, analyses parents’ choices within this diversified realm. Based on the parents’ selection criteria (significantly influenced by constraints and opportunities relating to social background or family status), it identifies four parental groups: pedagogical approach-centered, child-centered, facility-centered and (constrained) non-selective. The issues of ECEC diversification and parental choice are then discussed in light of Annette Lareau’s classed cultural logics of child rearing and the potential implications for the reproduction and reinforcement of social inequalities.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2018-00092019-03-07T00:00:00.000+00:00en-us-1