Early Childhood Education Commons^™

How The Arts Benefit The Whole Child, Sophie Rose Fudim, Sophie Fudim

Whittier Scholars Program

This literature review draws on insights from scholars and arts advocates, it delves into the significance of incorporating artistic practices in schools and advocates for including arts education in public schools. This literature review utilizes studies, peer-reviewed research papers, and governmental recommendations based on current research. Art has a highly transformative power. It benefits the development of complex thought processes and offers insights into children's abilities. By integrating art into education, educators can address the evolving challenges of early childhood education and cultivate environments where students can be engaged by enthusiastic, trained teachers and get excited about learning. Art prepares …

Latina Voice In Dialogue With Literacy, Xiaodi Zhou

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study follows the literacy experiences of four Latina middle schoolers as they read Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and compose home language narratives in their heritage voices. Both their vibrant ethnic cultures and other intersecting rays of identities are analyzed in the vein of their literate identities. Through analysis of their writing and speech, the girls present hybridized identities on the border between cultures and languages. Their position and identities in the social world of middle school are discussed and how transactions with literacy can dialogically influence those identities to enact critically conscious pedagogy.

Teaching Accurate And Age-Appropriate History To Elementary Students: Teaching Third Graders About Historic Thanksgiving, Ashley Schepis

Honors Program Theses and Projects

This educational and historical research is based on teaching accurate and age-appropriate history to elementary students. Unfortunately, instead of true history elementary schoolers are often taught myths, to avoid teaching children about the embarrassing and gruesome parts of United States history. When history is not taught truthfully, it can perpetuate stereotypes and leave students confused when they reach secondary and higher education and discover that some of what they know is incorrect. The purpose of this project is to investigate what really happened at the 1621 Harvest Feast and its evolution into the holiday that is celebrated today, assess how …

Gender Equity In Early Childhood Picture Books: A Cross-Cultural Study Of Frequently Read Picture Books In Early Childhood Classrooms In Australia And The United States, Helen Adam, Laurie Harper

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Children’s picture books contribute to children’s development of gender identity and can impact aspirations and expectations of roles in families and society. However, the world represented in children’s books reflects predominantly middle class, heterosexual, male heroes and characters. This paper reports on a cross-cultural study investigating gender representation in frequently read picture books across eight early learning centres in the United States and Australia. Forty-four educators working with 271 children participated. Data were collected from book audits and observations. Unique to this study is the presentation of a new data analysis instrument, Harper’s Framework of Gender Stereotypes Contained in Children’s …

Children's Center_Updated Protocol For Close Contacts-Chapel, Kimberly Dodge-Cummings

Children's Center

Email from Kimberly Dodge-Cummings, University of Maine: Children's Center Director regarding changes to protocols put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Children's Center_Chapel Covid-19 Testing, Kimberly Dodge-Cummings

Children's Center

Email from Kimberly Dodge-Cummings, University of Maine: Children's Center Director regarding the Children's Center no longer participating in test-to-stay for the Preschool and Chapel programs which was out in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Ethics And Philosophy Of Outdoor Education: Hidden Lessons Within The Leikskoli Curriculum In Isafjordur, Iceland, Cici Conroy

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Icelandic curriculum structures itself amongst six pillars: “literacy, sustainability, health, and welfare, democracy, and human rights, equality and creativity” (Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, 2014). The United States national standards for their state public schools focus on two central points: math and English language learning (Participant 6, personal communication, 2022). The way these structures are upheld reflect values, goals, and systems of knowledge. Depending on where a child is raised, the skills learned in the classroom will result in a completely different attitude toward environment, place, and success. In the United States, success seems to be defined by …

Oral History: A Tool For The Elementary And Middle Classroom, Jessica Keiser

Senior Honors Theses

Modern historical instruction requires educators to cover broad expanses of history and prepare students for standardized testing. In the push to meet state standards and cover the vast curriculum in short periods of time, many educators have begun to teach to the textbook. Much to the detriment of students, this educational practice has favored periodization and content quantity over the development of crucial historical skills. Rather than adhering to popular education trends, teachers can consider implementing oral history projects within their elementary and middle school classrooms. Oral history is a methodology that employs first-hand accounts to teach about key historical …

Children's Center_Covid Update, Kimberly Dodge-Cummings

Children's Center

Letter from Kimberly Dodge-Cummings, University of Maine: Children's Center Director regarding changes to protocols put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic regarding the fact that face covering will be in optional in all of the Children's Center programs.

Developing Digital Detectives: Essential Lessons For Discerning Fact From Fiction In The 'Fake News' Era | Book Review, Ashley Cooksey

Journal of Media Literacy Education Pre-Prints

No abstract provided.

Get The Arts Outdoors: Merging Arts And Nature In Outdoor Education At The Ymca, Puneet Dhaliwal

SASAH 4th Year Capstone and Other Projects: Publications

As part of my SASAH experiential learning requirement, I worked at the YMCA Cedar Glen Outdoor Centre during the Fall/Winter term of 2021/22. Although I had previously worked at the outdoor centre as an educator teaching groups, this year was a different experience due to the new responsibilities and unique learning opportunities presented by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the year, I was responsible for the creation of lesson plans merging the arts and sciences in an outdoor setting according to the curriculum requirements of Ontario’s Ministry of Education. Moreover, I implemented inclusive learning options for each unit …

Love And Learn: Creating Space For Authentic Caring In Family Child Care, Katherine Kelly Hart Meehan

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

Children benefit from engagement in early education and care (ECE) programs that support their learning and development while also providing a point of connection to critical resources for their families. For children from economically disadvantaged families, the lack of access to high-quality ECE results in a persistent achievement and opportunity gap (García & Weiss, 2015). A significant portion of ECE occurs in home-based early learning environments, also known as family child care (FCC) programs, which play a critical role in supporting children from low-income and immigrant families (Layzer et al., 2007; Porter et al., 2010). Unfortunately, this sector of ECE …

"Read It Again!": Storytelling To Imitate The Great Teacher, Kate Whatley

Senior Honors Theses

The student’s mind is bent on stories, asking mothers around the world to ‘read it again’. These stories preserve information and emotions for centuries. In the classroom, stories enliven motivation and empathy in ways that result in higher academic achievement and social awareness. Learning to use stories as a key instructional strategy will allow for more equitable opportunities in classrooms, encourage mental health and truth telling for the teacher and the student collectively, and allow the academic community to imitate Christ by contributing to the bigger story taking place across time. In application of using stories as teachers, this thesis …

Children's Center_Updated Covid-19 Information, Kimberly Dodge-Cummings

Children's Center

Letter from Kimberly Dodge-Cummings, University of Maine: Children's Center Director regarding the opening hours of the Center and guidelines put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Teaching To The Test Or Limiting Students?, Victoria Rivera

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

The purpose of this paper is to shine light on the way the school systems have been teaching and how it is affecting students in a negative way. It focuses mainly on teaching to the test and how it stops students from learning creatively and also does not let teachers teach the way they might want to. It also shows how this is a wicked problem and is more than a small school system issue. This impacts students, teachers, and the society we live in. The results of this research was that there were a lot of other authors that …

Music, Our Human Superpower, Kristin Lems

Faculty Publications

Research about music pervades every discipline because music touches every area of life. Studies revealing the salutary effects of music can be found not only in music educator research, but in research in psychology, speech and hearing, child development, neuroscience, and increasingly, health and wellness, aging, rehabilitation and recovery. Since my focus is especially in the areas of language and literacy, I research the positive effects of music on reading, writing, and learning languages - and of this, there is no shortage. In this brief Academia article, I share what I’d like to call an “homage-with-references” to our great Superpower, …

Best Practices For Preschool Music Education: Supporting Music‑Making Throughout The Day, Jentry Stoneman Barrett, Rachel E. Schachter, Danni Gilbert, Mathew Fuerst

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Active engagement in music has numerous academic and social benefits for young children and music-making is included in many early childhood standards and preschool curricula. The purpose of this article is to provide quality resources for classroom teachers to use in providing music-making activities for young children, ages 3–5. Although teachers may use music in their classrooms, we provide resources and suggestions for more intentional and extended integration of music-making. Specifically, we identify best practices for preschool music education based on key standards and research as well as with common music pedagogies. We then turn to concrete examples of how …

"The Candy Problem, Solved!": White Children And White Parents Grappling With Dysconscious Whiteness, Lindsay E. Olson

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

During an amplification of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, white children and parents have faced multiple interruptions to their protective territory of dysconscious whiteness—an uncritical approach to a structural status quo that favors white lives. Through semi-structured activities and interviews with ten children ages 3 to 9 and nine of their parents who observed these activities, I discovered a parent–child subsystem of dysconscious whiteness. White children and parents revealed aspects of this subsystem by grappling with dysconscious whiteness (grappling) as they struggled to avoid implicating skin color in resource inequality. Through grounded theory analysis of the process of grappling, …

Arts 4 All Kids/Ymca: Cel Final Report, Sarah Collins

SASAH 4th Year Capstone and Other Projects: Publications

An account of my CEL experiences as a volunteer creative writing teacher for the London nonprofit organization, Arts 4 All Kids, and as an educator for the before and after school program from the YMCA. These experiences have allowed me to explore teaching in a classroom setting, planning/delivering activities and assignments, behaviour and classroom management, working with children with special needs, and working with children from struggling families.

Final Report: Iconoclast And London Children's Connection Internships, Veronica Botnick

SASAH 4th Year Capstone and Other Projects: Publications

In my second year of university, I joined an on-campus magazine, Iconoclast, as an assistant director. In my third year, I continued with Iconoclast as a director and started another internship with the London Children's Connection. Both projects have shown the effects of different language choice. With Iconoclast, I learned the importance of taking a less academic writing approach in theme descriptions and editors' letters. A neutral tone reaches a wider audience and ensures that readers from any background gain a full understanding of our theme. At the London Children's Connection, a simple change in choice of words can improve …

Children's Center_Urgent-Center, Kimberly Dodge-Cummings

Children's Center

Letter from Kimberly Dodge-Cummings, University of Maine: Children's Center Director regarding the Center programs taking a 72-hour pause in its operations from November 10 to November 12, 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mirrors Of Our Own: Multiracial Representation In Children’S Picture Books, Kiana Foster-Mauro

Honors Scholar Theses

The United States multiracial population is a fast-growing portion of our population. As the multiracial population grows, so does the need for multiracial representation within books. This study analyzed the representation of multiracial individuals in children’s picture books for ages newborn-8. I identified 75 board and picture books published in the United States between the years 2009 and 2019 that feature mixed race characters. The identified texts were analyzed in a critical content analysis using a framework based upon Critical Race Theory. Through this framework, I examined how multiracial characters in the texts are portrayed, the power dynamics, and what …

The Early Childhood Years: Building Blocks For Life, Gwen R. Marra

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"In the early childhood years, so much growth and development occurs. It truly is the foundation for the formal learning that happens later in life."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­education in the formative years from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/the-early-childhood-years-building-blocks-for-life/

Stories That Shape Us, Lauren Dubas

Honors Expanded Learning Clubs

This club is a Mythology Club that explores popular greek myths through fun and interactive activities. These actives are designed with 4th and 5th graders in mind, and are meant to provide an interesting way to interact with the mythology material presented during each lesson. The lessons do not build off of one another, and can be used in any order and still retain understanding of that myth.

Impoverished Neighbourhoods & After-School Programs, Syed Bukhari

Social Justice and Community Engagement Major Research Papers

This paper examines the quality of Ontario’s after-school program as implemented by Rapport by using Tuason et al.’s (2009) criteria. The goal of this study is to answer the following questions: How the three core areas of the program are implemented and what activities are offered in the three core areas? How staff members and participant perceive the program and how the program impacts the lives of the participants? After-school programs have become an essential part of impoverished communities over the past three decades. The need of quality after-school programs in disadvantaged neighbourhoods has never been higher. Children residing in …

Finding The Path Beneath My Feet, Jill O'Craven

SASAH 4th Year Capstone and Other Projects: Publications

Jill O'Craven participated in two CEL experiences: first, assisting with the second-year Digital Humanities course taken by SASAH students and producing a video on breaking down the A&H/STEM dichotomy and, second, volunteering at the London Children's Museum assisting with running the Early Years' Play Dates. The two experiences were useful in crystalizing her interest in science communication and education outside the classroom and helped her develop skills and experience to pursue this passion.

Experiential Learning: Sasah Final Report, Elora Sinnott

SASAH 4th Year Capstone and Other Projects: Publications

Elora Sinnott revisits both her experiential-learning opportunities, one as a research assistant at Western and the other with Art 4 All Kids in London, ON. In describing her opportunities and the results, Elora focuses on the skills she developed, the impact the opportunities had on her career path, and the importance of instilling a love of the arts in children.

Passionate About Early Childhood Educational Policy, Practice, And Pedagogy: Exploring Intersections Between Discourses, Experiences, And Feelings...Knitting New Terms Of Belonging, Pam Whitty, Monica Lysack, Patricia Lirette, Joanne Lehrer, Jane Hewes

Publications and Scholarship

We are five early childhood researchers, from across Canada, thrown together amongst a series of alarming discourses, where developmental, economic, and neuroscientific rationales for ECEC drown out alternative theoretical perspectives, as well as personal experience, values, subjective knowledges, and the fierce passion we feel for our work. In the midst of this “throwntogethness” (Massey, 2005), how do we bring our situated knowings and desires to these discursive material relational mashups? How do we engage with the throwntogetherness that is the Canadian ECEC field as we knit together alternative ways of being, doing, and acting, figuring out what resonates in localized …

Experiential Learning, Elora Sinnott

SASAH 4th Year Capstone and Other Projects: Presentations

In her presentation, Elora Sinnott revisits both her experiential-learning opportunities, one as a research assistant at Western and the other with Art 4 All Kids in London, ON. In describing her opportunities and the results, Elora focuses on the skills she developed, the impact the opportunities had on her career path, and the importance of instilling a love of the arts in children.

Denis Diderot: A Secular Hero, Ben Scott-Brandt

Honors Projects

My Honors Senior Project is a biography of Denis Diderot in the form of a children's song. MY understanding of Diderot's life is based on Andrew Curran's book, Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely.

Songs help us memorize and retain information about the world, and singing songs together strengthens cultural and religious connections. Secular (nonreligious) people need songs, too. Diderot was a philosopher who didn't believe in God. He was an editor of L'Encyclopédie, one of the first encyclopedias, and he snuck in articles that challenged how people think. This was an important moment -- knowledge about the world …