Research Around the World

Some of the latest international research topics I discovered while exploring the European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA) website were as follows;

Research with children: three challenges for participatory research in early childhood (Waller, T & Bitou, A. 2011),  Children’s cortisol patterns and the quality of the early learning environment (Sajaniemi, N., Suhonen, E., et al. 2011), and Introducing children’s perspectives and participation in research (Harcourt, D., & Einarsdotter, J. 2011). 

From the first research topic, I discovered that researchers are using stories as participatory tools to elicit children’s perspectives in research for the purpose of pedagogy. But other research has revealed that relying on participatory tools (things and activities for the children to explore and do) have underlying issues that could be problematic, namely, adults imposing their interpretation of the children’s responses to the participatory tools, the absence of grounding the research in the children’s culture and restricted adult child interactions due to the emphasis placed on the participatory tools being used (Waller, T. & Bitou, A. 2011). What I learned from this sturdy is that what may seem like a good ideal, may turn out not to be so good after all. 

The second research topic about the correlation between the patterns of cortisol in three – five year old children and the quality of the early learning environment (Sajaniemi, N., Suhonen E., et al. 2011) was very interesting to me because of my personal experience with observing children in the classroom. I have witnessed first hand children holding their hands over their ears and saying it’s too loud. The research from this study showed that cortisol levels in young children were highest within the first thirty minutes of waking up and subsided in the evening. Children were also found to have higher cortisol levels while at school than at home (Sajaniemi, N., Suhonen E., et al. 2011). I agree that a classroom of 15- 18 three year olds can be too much for some children. Moving forward, now that my awareness of this matter has been heightened,  I will be implementing some new cues to help the children tone down their voices and provide more sensory activities to bring calmness in the room. 

The third research topic - Introducing children’s perspectives and participation in research (Harcourt, D., & Einarsdotter, J. 2011) reinforced the concept that utilizing children’s input in research has a lot to offer and that children are competent enough to communicate their views. Also worthy of mentioning, I discovered that this research was developed by a Special Interest Group (SIG). The EECERA organization encourages other early childhood professionals to present topics of interests for the purpose of conducting research. The proposed topic undergoes the process of starting out as a topic, being refined and then developed into a hypothesis. The EECERA will accept or reject a proposed hypothesis depending on the value it may contribute to the early childhood field. My personal view about the encouragement of SIG is that it allows for knowledge in the early childhood field to expand as well as provide upcoming researchers to gain experience.

As the early childhood field continues to evolve, ongoing research has much to contribute especially now that we know that children are well capable of communicating their views as participants in research.  

References

Waller, T. & Bitou, A. (2011) Research with children: three challenges for participatory research in early childhood European Early Childhood Education Research Journal 19 (1) 5 – 20. Retrieved form: http://www.eecera.org/

Sajaniemi, N., Suhonen, E., Kontu, E., Rantanen, P., Lindholm, H., Hyttinen, S., & Hirvonen, A. (2011): Children’s cortisol patterns and the quality of the early learning environment, European Early Childhood Research Journal 19 (1) 45-62. Retrieved from http://www.eecera.org/

 

Harcourt, D. & Einarsdotter, J. (2011) Introducing children’s perspectives and participation in research European Early Childhood Education Research Journal 19 (3) 301 – 307. Retrieved form: http://www.eecera.org/