Methodology for Research with Early Childhood Education and Care Professionals

Cecilia Wallerstedt is Professor in Education at the Department of Education, Communication and Learning at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Her research interest concerns knowledge, teaching and learning in music, and the interaction between teachers and children/pupils. She has conducted practice-based research in several projects in preschool, primary- and secondary school.Eva Brooks is Professor in IT-based Design, Learning and Innovation at the Department of Culture and Learning, Aalborg University, Denmark. Her research has a design focus on participation, social interaction, and the use and development of digital technology and their implications for play and learning. Her research also includes an innovation dimension, where she applies a design-oriented approach to co-creative processes with children. She has been involved in several research projects concerning children’s participation, play, and learning in state-of-the-art technology settings. Currently, her research also has a focus on teachers’ professional digital competence grounded in creative workshops where the learning is participative, collaborative and peer-oriented.Elin Eriksen Ødegaard is Professor, Dr. Fil. and Director of KINDKNOW - Kindergarten Knowledge Centre for Systemic Research on Diversity and Sustainable Futures at Western Norway University of Applied Science. She is working with partnership research for professional development in efforts to understand and support conditions for institutional pedagogical practice. Her research interest embraces cultural historical ideas, global and local perspectives, teachers’ pedagogies and changing practices for sustainable futures and children’s play exploration.  She often uses narrative, explorative and multimedia resources in her research and communication. She has authored and co-authors 9 books and more than 50 scientific articles/chapters.Niklas Pramling is Professor of Education at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He is Director of two national research schools for preschool teachers (funded by the Swedish Research Council). He conducts communications research in early childhood education and care settings and beyond.

• Part I: Introduction.- Chapter 1: Enabling knowledge development relevant for ECEC.- Part II: Example studies.- Chapter 2: A retrospective view on researchers’ and preschool teachers’ collaboration: The case of developing children’s learning in preschool.- Chapter 3: Exploring mixed roles and goals in collaborative research: The example of toddler mathematics education.- Chapter 4: Managing the tension between the known and the unknown in knowledge-building: The example of the Play-Responsive Early Childhood Education and Care (PRECEC).- Chapter 5: Success of and barriers to workshop methodology: Experiences from Exploration and Pedagogical Innovation Laboratories (EX-PED-LAB).- Chapter 6: Opening up new spaces for action: Challenges of participatory action research for preschool practice transformation in an introductory unit for immigrant children.- Chapter 7: Integrating digital technologies in teaching and learning through participation: Case studies from the Xlab – Design, Learning, Innovation laboratory.- Chapter 8: Interprofessional dialogue and the importance of contextualising children’s participation: A collaboration between different disciplines round new technology.- Chapter 9: Mutuality in collaboration: A development project for teaching in multilingual ECEC.- Part III: Theoretical and conceptual discussions and tools.- Chapter 10: The importance of de-reifying language in research with early childhood education and care professionals: A critical feature of workshop methodology.- Chapter 11: Responding to wicked tensions and problems in practices-developing research.- Chapter 12: Terminological and conceptual meta-commentaries on practices-developing research.