[Xmca-l] Re: A request for assistance

Tue Aug 26 00:13:41 PDT 2014

Ageliki

I intended to send the attached material earlier. Unfortunately I have
moved and all the my hard drives are in a hard drive pile. I did find the
material I thought might help you in your task. I have saved this bit
created by Peg Griffin and Katherine Kind for a long time. I was hoping to
use it in one of our
5D sites. We will soon I hope. Take a look at it. It is solid and
applicable to your problem.

Bill Blanton

On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 2:34 PM, David Kellogg <dkellogg60@gmail.com> wrote:

> Someone was kind enough to point out that among the (doubless legion)
> errors in my posts on this topic was a rather infelicitous phrase
> which seemed to imply that only middle class parents were caring. The
> point I was trying to make was that working class parents work--and
> this eventually means less time for care-taking (not "caring"). This
> is as much a fact of preschool life as the fact that larger classes
> mean less individual time with the teacher during school life.
>
> And--like most facts of working class life in the last few
> decades--it's getting worse, thanks to software which allows employers
> to treat their minimum wage staff the way that hospitals treat
> doctors--without the benefits. Take a look at this:
>
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/13/us/starbucks-workers-scheduling-hours.html?_r=0
>
> David Kellogg
> Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
>
>
> On 19 August 2014 19:53, chronaki <chronaki@uth.gr> wrote:
> > Dear Aggeliki
> >
> > I get into this line of discussion, hoping that I have something to
> offer,
> > as it is very close to my heart, my experiences and my current work. I
> work
> > in an early childhood department of education and I teach mathematics
> > pedagogy and learning courses to our undergraduates -who mostly ome from
> a
> > working class background. I try to organize my courses around
> > interdisciplinary work using digital media and expressive arts so that to
> > prepare them for becoming designers of playful and art-based activity for
> > the young children -so that to experience mathematical learning not as
> > direct teaching but as connected and related. I realize that very often
> my
> > students have a very limited 'taste' of what might be aesthetically
> > appropriate for the early ages, what is play, how play could be possibly
> > linked to joy, how work can be joyful or even how play can require
> > discipline, logic and intuition. Of course, this 'limited taste'
> reflects to
> > some extent a matter of working/middle class diversity (although such
> > distinctions are not exactly relevant today ). Some of my students
> haven't
> > visited a museum in their life and know merely commercial play as it is
> > advertised in shops and TV.
> >
> > The discussion over playful learning and how this relates to social class
> > (especially in the early ages) is quite important and, perhaps, much more
> > relevant today than it was a few decades ago. The topic is not new -but
> > seems to come up again and again, although through different theorizing,
> > empirical evidence and priorities in educational politics but also
> > educational commerce  (e.g.- see what is being bought today at such an
> ease
> > by anxious parents and educators?!!...).
> >
> > I can think over two publications in the field of mathematics education
> that
> > may be of some use here.
> > One is a  book by Cooper, Barry and Dunne, Mairead  [see exact reference
> > ....(2000) /Assessing Children's Mathematical Knowledge: social class sex
> > and problem solving./ <http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/27498/> Open University
> Press
> > Buckingham, 215 pp. ISBN 0335-20316-7] that discusses a sociological
> > analysis (based mainly on Bernstein) on how explicit/implicit ways of
> > educating influence children's success and how this relates to social
> class
> > and gender.
> >
> > Another one is Valerie Walkerdine's well known book entitled 'Counting
> > Girls' Out: Girls and Mathematics' published in the 80s. Although the
> title
> > does not disclose its relevance to social class, this book is also
> closely
> > related to the discussion of playful or 'progressive' education and its
> > appropriation by working and middle class families (note: perhaps one
> needs
> > to attend to the 'new middle classes' phenomenon due to the upgrading or
> > even downgrading in social classes. In the 80s, much more than it is
> now,
> > the family was for many households the 'mother' and the family was
> extended
> > into the preschool years to the teacher -who was supposed to be the
> 'mother
> > figure'. I have found very useful the discussion carried through the book
> > over  how 'playful' activity  (and progressive pedagogy) influences
> > differently social and working class 'mothers' and how related discourses
> > tend to inscribe their interactions, behavior, pleasures, tacit
> assessments
> > and evaluative comments. How, then, the child can resist or appropriate
> such
> > discursive machinery?  Ηow much play requires the 'meeting' of diverse
> > discourses that, mainly relate to social class, ethnic, gendered
> > diversities. Walkerdine provides some explanations throughout the book
> based
> > on Foucault and feminist theory. I have enjoyed this book and although
> the
> > book is not new it deserves an extra reading. I was recently responsible
> for
> > editing its translation into Greek. Perhaps you might want to have a
> look in
> > a lecture videotaped by Bodosakis foundation as an introduction to these
> > very complex issues [
> > http://www.blod.gr/lectures/Pages/viewlecture.aspx?LectureID=786]. I
> guess
> > you speak Greek. If not, ignore the video...
> >
> > with best wishes
> > anna chronaki
> >
> >
> >
> > On 19-Aug-14 8:00 AM, Tonyan, Holli A wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi Ageliki,
> >>
> >> I can think of two resources for your topic.
> >>
> >> Lisa Delpit's book Other People's Children directly addresses this.  She
> >> argues (I haven't read it in a while so forgive the fuzzy description)
> that
> >> a "child centered" focus harms children who are from cultural
> backgrounds
> >> outside of white, middle class backgrounds because they need more
> explicit
> >> instruction in a cultural community that is not their own.
> >>
> >> Carollee Howes book Culture and Child Development in Early Childhood
> >> Education is relevant, but less directly so.  Howes includes a number of
> >> programs that she originally saw as "skill and drill" programs and she
> goes
> >> to some length to articulate their beliefs and practices in the context
> of
> >> their community.  She's not arguing for "skill and drill" per se, but
> she is
> >> situating those approaches in local meaning through interviews with
> >> directors and teachers in programs that were identified by community
> members
> >> as excellent programs and which surprised her from her ECE background.
> >>
> >> Delpit's book, particularly the second edition, is the clearest
> >> articulation of the argument you present in the third paragraph below:
> >> However,
> >> there are some people who might be willing to concede that more
> >> child-centered, play-based, and constructivist might be OK for young
> >> children from educated middle class families ... but that they won't
> work
> >> for poor and otherwise disadvantaged children. THOSE kids need direct
> >> instruction to transmit "basic skills", and giving them anything else
> is,
> >> at best, a distraction from giving them what they need for school
> >> readiness.
> >>
> >> The preface to the second edition includes Delpit's description of the
> >> reactions that her colleagues have had to her arguments including those
> who
> >> agree (often in private and not in public) as well as those who oppose
> her.
> >>
> >> Hope this helps!
> >> Holli Tonyan
> >>
> >> On Aug 16, 2014, at 7:11 AM, Ageliki Nicolopoulou
> >> <agn3@lehigh.edu<mailto:agn3@lehigh.edu>> wrote:
> >>
> >> Dear XMCA community,
> >>
> >> I'm looking for a piece of information, and I wonder whether someone on
> >> the
> >> XMCA list has it at their fingertips.
> >>
> >> I'm writing something that deals with Vivian Paley's storytelling and
> >> story-acting practice. Among other things, that activity is an example
> of
> >> child-centered, play-based, and constructivist approaches to early child
> >> education--the kinds of approaches that have been getting squeezed out
> by
> >> preschool practices that exclusively emphasize teacher-centered,
> didactic
> >> transmission of specific academic skills by direct instruction.
> >>
> >> A lot of people think that pushing down didacted/academic teaching
> >> practices into preschool education is a good thing in general.  However,
> >> there are some people who might be willing to concede that more
> >> child-centered, play-based, and constructivist might be OK for young
> >> children from educated middle class families ... but that they won't
> work
> >> for poor and otherwise disadvantaged children. THOSE kids need direct
> >> instruction to transmit "basic skills", and giving them anything else
> is,
> >> at best, a distraction from giving them what they need for school
> >> readiness.
> >>
> >> My problem is this.  As we all know, a lot of people think that, and
> they
> >> say it in conversation, and they make written arguments that rest
> >> implicitly on that premise. In fact, this outlook is very widespread and
> >> influential. But I've found that very few of them seem to be willing to
> >> actually SAY it explicitly in their published work. I'm talking about
> >> academics and policymakers. There are pro-direct-instruction websites
> that
> >> say it pretty straightforwardly. But journals want academic citations in
> >> articles, so I'm trying to find one.
> >>
> >> *So does anyone out there know of any published work where someone
> >> actually
> >> SAYS that in writing?  That is, that more child-oriented, play-based,
> and
> >> constructivist preschool practices (however they actually describe them)
> >> might be OK for young children from educated middle-class homes, but are
> >> useless or even harmful for poor and disadvantaged kids, who need more
> >> teacher-centered, skill-based direct instruction?*
> >>
> >> I figured it couldn't hurt to ask.
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> Ageliki Nicolopoulou
> >>
> >> ________________
> >> Ageliki Nicolopoulou
> >> Professor of Psychology & Global Studies
> >> Personal Webpage:
> >>
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v1/url?u=http://lehigh.academia.edu/AgelikiNicolopoulou/About&k=eRI2VDBB0Ws5kaCopmd0GA%3D%3D%0A&r=qf%2BkY0WzGaFiU9hp3%2Bd0t5Pou2Gry2wwk%2B1QGKOKBwI%3D%0A&m=nmQJWXRp5Mwrx2ct1gjgnwNUV1KUlNHqKFvn0P33J90%3D%0A&s=6a17755971ebaeca66e7a24d577fa559f5749d719fe3d9e43f0e55734c76a872
> >> Departmental Webpage:
> >>
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v1/url?u=http://cas.lehigh.edu/CASWeb/default.aspx?id%3D1430&k=eRI2VDBB0Ws5kaCopmd0GA%3D%3D%0A&r=qf%2BkY0WzGaFiU9hp3%2Bd0t5Pou2Gry2wwk%2B1QGKOKBwI%3D%0A&m=nmQJWXRp5Mwrx2ct1gjgnwNUV1KUlNHqKFvn0P33J90%3D%0A&s=83b487928946eb760073a00968fd37eb3a53224b009ff50818ea4793fe26367c
> >>
> >> Holli A. Tonyan, Ph.D.
> >> ------------
> >> Associate Professor | Department of Psychology | California State
> >> University, Northridge
> >> Postal Address: 18111 Nordhoff Street | Northridge, CA 91330-8255
> >>
> >> Tel: (818) 677-4970 | Fax: (818) 677-2829
> >> Office: ST322
> >>
> >> http://www.csun.edu/~htonyan
> >> http://csun.academia.edu/HolliTonyan
> >> http://www.csun.edu/~ata20315/GE/general_experimental_psychology2.html
> >>
> >> **check out**
> >>
> >> Tonyan, H. A. (in press).  Everyday routines: A window into the cultural
> >> organization of family child care.  Journal of Early Childhood Research.
> >> http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1476718X14523748
> >>
> >> Tonyan, H. A., Nuttall, J. (2014).  Connecting cultural models of
> >> home-based care and childminders’ career paths: An Eco-cultural
> analysis.
> >> International Journal of Early Years Education, 22, 117-138,
> >> http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09669760.2013.809654
> >>
> >> Tonyan, H. A., Mamikonian, A., & Chien, D. (2013).  Do they practice
> what
> >> they preach?  An Ecocultural, multidimensional, group-based examination
> of
> >> the relationship between beliefs and behaviours among child care
> providers.
> >> Early Child Development and Care, 183:12, 1853-1877.
> >> http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03004430.2012.759949
> >>
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> >>
> >> Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
> >> change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. - Margaret
> >> Mead <http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Margaret_Mead/> US
> anthropologist
> >> & popularizer of anthropology (1901 - 1978)
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
>
>
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