Children's Exploration and Cultural Formation (International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development, 29)

Children’s Exploration and Cultural Formation
	Acknowledgement
	Contents
	Chapter 1: Introduction to Children’s Exploration and Cultural Formation
		1.1 A Cultural Historical Approach to Children’s Exploration and Cultural Formation
		1.2 Examining Cultures of Exploration
		1.3 ‘Glocalisation’ – Revisiting the Global and the Local in Early Childhood Education
		1.4 The Structure of the Book
		References
	Chapter 2: Children’s Exploration as a Key in Children’s Play and Learning Activity in Social and Cultural Formation
		2.1 Introduction
		2.2 Children’s Exploration in Different Life Periods
			2.2.1 Children’s Activities in the Different Institutional Settings
		2.3 Early Childhood Education
		2.4 Three Approaches to Explorative Learning in Kindergarten
		2.5 Instructional Conversation (S5) About the Polar Bear’s Life
		2.6 Evaluation of the Different Educational Approaches
		2.7 Conditions for Early Childhood Education that Orient Children Towards Play and Exploration
		2.8 Evaluation and Pedagogy Have to Be Seen as a Unit: A Greenlandic Early Childhood –Kindergarten Project with Focus on Exploration
		2.9 Conclusion
		References
	Chapter 3: Beyond Bullying: Understanding Children’s Exploration of Inclusion and Exclusion Processes in Kindergarten
		3.1 Bullying in Kindergarten
		3.2 Research Focus and Aims
		3.3 Children’s Exploration
		3.4 Earlier Research About Bullying of Relevance to Kindergarten
		3.5 Bullying Caused in a Need for Belonging, Can Lead to Exclusion
		3.6 The Empirical Excerpt and Methodological Aspects
		3.7 A Case About Internal Exclusion in a Free Play Setting
			3.7.1 Free-Play Outdoors – Not All the Three Boys Are Drawing
		3.8 Bullying Analysed and Discussed as a Complex Exclusion Process
			3.8.1 Individual – Relational Level
			3.8.2 Activity Setting
			3.8.3 Institutional Level
			3.8.4 Society Level
		3.9 Conclusion
		References
	Chapter 4: Children’s Explorative Activities in Kindergarten Playgrounds: A Case Study in China and Norway
		4.1 Introduction
		4.2 Conditions for Children’s Exploration
		4.3 Studying Children’s Exploration in Kindergarten
		4.4 Children’s Explorative Activities in Teacher-Organized Activities in Outdoor Playtime
			4.4.1 Case 1. The Jumping Relay – Chinese Kindergarten
				4.4.1.1 Summary of the Jumping- Relay, Chinese Kindergarten
			4.4.2 Case 2. The Chicken Game – Norwegian Kindergarten
				4.4.2.1 Summary of the Chicken-Game, Norwegian Kindergarten
			4.4.3 Summary of Our Findings
		4.5 Discussion of Conditions for Children’s Explorations
			4.5.1 Societal Needs, Expectations and Demands
			4.5.2 Institutional Organization and Demands
			4.5.3 Kindergarten Teachers’ Motivation and Engagement in the Activity Setting
			4.5.4 Children’s Motivation and Engagement
			4.5.5 Climate and Air Quality
		4.6 Conclusion
		References
	Chapter 5: Conflict Analyses: A Methodology for Exploring Children’s Cultural Formation in Early Childhood Education
		5.1 Introduction
		5.2 Constructing Theoretical Dialectical Knowledge
			5.2.1 Constructing Knowledge by Emphasising Conflicts
			5.2.2 Analysis from a Thematic Perspective
			5.2.3 Analysis from the Perspective of Cultural Formation in Nature
			5.2.4 Illustrating a Multifactorial Methodology for Analysis to Construct Theoretical Dialectical Knowledge
		5.3 Method and Material
		5.4 Analysis
			5.4.1 Conflicts in the Activity (Imaginative Play)
			5.4.2 Conflicts from an Institutional Perspective
			5.4.3 Conflicts from a Cultural Perspective
			5.4.4 Conflicts from the Perspective of Nature
			5.4.5 The Conflicts and What Were Explored
		5.5 Concluding Reflections
		References
	Chapter 6: Dialogical Engagement and the Co-Creation of Cultures of Exploration
		6.1 Introduction
		6.2 Cultural-Historical Perspective and Ecological Inspiration
		6.3 A ‘Glocal’ Awareness and Moving Away from Unsustainability
		6.4 A Pedagogical Model of Exploration as Dialogical Engagement
		6.5 Time—Emergence and Manifestations of Practice
		6.6 Characteristics of Exploration in Pedagogy
		6.7 Activity, Relations, Place and Space
		6.8 Illustrations and Discussions of Conditions
		6.9 Meaning-Making and Participatory Space
		6.10 The Relevance of ‘Exploration’ in Early Years Pedagogy in the ‘Glocal’ Landscape
		6.11 Conclusion—Cultures of Exploration
		References
	Chapter 7: Historical Roots of Exploration – Through a Fröbelian Third Space
		7.1 Play and Exploration in Friedrich Fröbel’s Educational Philosophy
		7.2 Tracing Exploration Through Friedrich Fröbel’s Educational Philosophy
		7.3 The Holistic Approach and the Invisible Third
		7.4 Exploring Conditions for the Third Space
		7.5 Roundtrip to the Future: Through a Fröbelian-Inspired Third Space
		Appendix
		References
	Chapter 8: Institutional Conditions for Exploration: Chinese Kindergarten Teachers’ Perspectives and Practices
		8.1 Introduction and Background
		8.2 The Present Study
			8.2.1 Research Question
			8.2.2 Research Sites
			8.2.3 Data Collection and Participants
			8.2.4 Data Analysis
		8.3 Findings and Discussion
			8.3.1 Teachers’ Conceptions of Children’s Exploration
			8.3.2 Explorative Activities Children Engage In
				8.3.2.1 The General Exploration Process and Teachers’ Role in It
				8.3.2.2 Common Exploratory Activities across the Kindergartens
				8.3.2.3 Explorative Activities of Own Distinctive Features
		8.4 Conclusion and Implications
		References
	Chapter 9: Kindergarten as a Budding Explorative Scientific Community
		9.1 Introduction
		9.2 Learning and Development from a Cultural-Historical Perspective
			9.2.1 Social Activities as Starting Points of Learning and Development
			9.2.2 Learning and Development as Mediated
		9.3 The Concept of Exploration
		9.4 ‘Science as inquiry’ and ‘Practices of science’
		9.5 Sciencing in Kindergarten
			9.5.1 Incidental Sciencing
			9.5.2 Informal Sciencing
			9.5.3 Formal Sciencing
		9.6 Bridging and Challenging Beliefs about What Constitute Good Educational Practices in Kindergarten
		9.7 What Competences Do the Teachers Need?
		9.8 Closing Remarks
		References
	Chapter 10: Musical Exploration in Everyday Practices – Identifying Transition Points in Musicking
		10.1 Introduction
		10.2 How Music Works in Institutional Settings
		10.3 Musicking
		10.4 Reconstructing Narratives to Understand Musicking Transition Points
			10.4.1 Narrative 1: Music Circle Time – Exploration with Music Instruments
			10.4.2 Narrative 2: The Sword Dance – Exploration through Rhythm and Imagination
			10.4.3 Narrative 3: Fictional Drama – Exploration in a Joint Community
		10.5 Conceptualising Exploration Through Identifying Transition Points
		10.6 Music and Musical Exploration
		References
	Chapter 11: Exploration Through Process Drama with Kindergarten Children
		11.1 Introduction
		11.2 Part I Process Drama
		11.3 Process Drama and children’s Play
		11.4 The Teacher’s Responsibility, Role, and Attitude in Process Drama
		11.5 Part II: An Example – With Analysing Comments
		11.6 At the Courthouse
		11.7 Conclusion
		References