Transitions in Childhood and Youth – Serie

Written by a team of international contributors and featuring case studies from a range of educational settings in Australia, Denmark, Spain, Sweden, and the USA, this edited book is the first in the field of early childhood and youth studies to draw on Vygotsky's cultural-historical theory to give insights into transitions in childhood, what they are and how they are differently experienced. Transitions are explored holistically so the chapters not only focus on the person transitioning but also the institutions in which the person is transitioning from and to, with a focus on schools and daycare. The contributors look at how societal values and policies impact these transitions and comparison are drawn between international settings. The book includes chapters on expatriate families, immigrant children, home-school transitions, the role of play and communities. Through interviews, case studies and the analysis of empirical material from fieldwork, Children’s Transitions in Everyday Life and Institutions reflects on the best ways to engage children so that they may emerge as competent actors in their new settings and transition well.

The international contributors to Supporting Difficult Transitions discuss examples of transitions that are problematic for children, young people and their carers. Focusing on vulnerable children and young people, the transitions include: starting school, changing schools, starting work, entering a new culture or a culture that has been changed to focusing on vulnerable children and young people. The book will be useful to practitioners involved in supporting children and their carers as they make these moves; students and course tutors in the caring professions; researchers; and policy makers and those who implement policy for children and young people. The different case examples are given coherence by drawing on cultural-historical approaches to how people move between practices. Particular attention is paid to how practitioners can build shared understandings of what matters for children and young people and for the institutions they are entering. These understandings become a resource to strengthen collaborations between practitioners or between practitioners and the children and their carers, as they support entry into new practices.

This book is about young people and their transitions throughout their first year of high school, deepening our understanding of how it is to be young and enter new institutional settings, and how to understand the developmental dynamics of youth life. It explores the everyday life of six young people as they enter high school and follows them closely as they encounter and try to make sense of the different standards, values, and demands that are built into the institutional setting of high school.The chapters explore the entanglements of personal motive orientation, interpersonal dynamics, institutional values and demands, as well as societal standards, and how subtle negotiations of who one is and ought to be are interwoven into the fabrics of everyday life. Hence the book explores variations on an institutional level – as different high school environments – along with variations on an interpersonal level, insisting on a person-environment reciprocity in the study of development. Using cultural-historical activity theory and ecological psychology derived from theorists including Bang, Barker & Wright, Gibson, Lewin, Hedegaard, Ilyenkov, Stetsenko, and Vygotsky, Sofie Pedersen argues that developmental dynamics among young people cannot be reduced to individual nor social processes alone but are connected to institutional conditions and to concrete places. By insisting on a wholeness approach to the understanding of youth development, Pedersen reveals the developmental dynamics that unfold in the everyday lives of young people, and sheds new light on youth life dynamics, including the challenges that young people face.

This book investigates pedagogical change across curricula and political transitions in the South African context, from 1994 to today. Tracing pedagogical transitions from post-apartheid to the demands of the 21st century, the book seeks to develop a novel approach to pedagogy that can meet the needs of students today. Adopting a cultural-historical lens, Hardman analyses the contradictions that arise due to transitions in the curriculum and describes the current state of teaching in primary schools in South Africa by focusing on how teachers teach scientific concepts. She goes on to examine the transitions from children’s indigenous science/maths understanding to school science/maths understanding, developing a pedagogy that can transform the learning of mathematics and science in developing contexts. Building on theories from Vygotsky, Davydov, Feuerstein, Freire, Bruner and Hedegaard, Hardman develops a new and inclusive, decolonial pedagogical approach that can meet the needs of a multicultural and multilingual contexts around the world.

Written by a team of international contributors and featuring case studies from a range of educational settings in Australia, Denmark, Spain, Sweden, and the USA, this edited book is the first in the field of early childhood and youth studies to draw on Vygotsky's cultural-historical theory to give insights into transitions in childhood, what they are and how they are differently experienced. Transitions are explored holistically so the chapters not only focus on the person transitioning but also the institutions in which the person is transitioning from and to, with a focus on schools and daycare. The contributors look at how societal values and policies impact these transitions and comparison are drawn between international settings. The book includes chapters on expatriate families, immigrant children, home-school transitions, the role of play and communities. Through interviews, case studies and the analysis of empirical material from fieldwork, Children’s Transitions in Everyday Life and Institutions reflects on the best ways to engage children so that they may emerge as competent actors in their new settings and transition well.

This book presents new ethnographic research carried out with five children between one and five years old. It explores children’s agency in relation to daily transitions across everyday life contexts such as home and day-care contexts. Based on this new research, Pernille Juhl shows how young children are active participants orientating in their everyday life transitions. She argues that we should understanding children as creative and transformative subjects co-creating together with co-participants such as parents, professionals and other children, the conditions under which they live. Juhl builds on theoretical work by Holzkamp, Stetsenko, Hedegaard and Vygotsky and covers a range of theoretical approaches and concepts in her analysis such as befindlichkeit, micromovements and embodied orientation. While the research was carried out in the Danish context, the broader theoretical discussions are relevant for early childhood contexts globally, with a focus on Europe and the USA.

This book presents new ethnographic research carried out with five children between one and five years old. It explores children’s agency in relation to daily transitions across everyday life contexts such as home and day-care contexts. Based on this new research, Pernille Juhl shows how young children are active participants orientating in their everyday life transitions. She argues that we should understanding children as creative and transformative subjects co-creating together with co-participants such as parents, professionals and other children, the conditions under which they live. Juhl builds on theoretical work by Holzkamp, Stetsenko, Hedegaard and Vygotsky and covers a range of theoretical approaches and concepts in her analysis such as befindlichkeit, micromovements and embodied orientation. While the research was carried out in the Danish context, the broader theoretical discussions are relevant for early childhood contexts globally, with a focus on Europe and the USA.

This book uses the concept of exploration as a way of understanding transitions in children between the ages of 5 to 18 years old. Written by an international group of scholars from Australia, Brazil, China, Denmark, Finland, Greenland, India, Norway and the UK, the chapters offer a diverse set of case studies. The topics and themes covered include transitions in outdoor playtime, the transition to daycare, compassion in kindergarten, learning with fathers, transitions of Chinese traditional culture and disability. The chapters are organised into two parts, the first part covering macro transitions and the second covering micro-genetic transitions. The contributors show how both macro and micro-genetic transitions influence children’s everyday lives, and how these different transitions open up new possibilities for play, learning and development. The contributors draw on Vygotsky’s cultural historical theory and the understanding that children’s cultural formation takes form in a dialectic relation between children’s interests and motives and the institutional settings they participate in.

This book uses the concept of exploration as a way of understanding transitions in children between the ages of 5 to 18 years old. Written by an international group of scholars from Australia, Brazil, China, Denmark, Finland, Greenland, India, Norway and the UK, the chapters offer a diverse set of case studies. The topics and themes covered include transitions in outdoor playtime, the transition to daycare, compassion in kindergarten, learning with fathers, transitions of Chinese traditional culture and disability. The chapters are organised into two parts, the first part covering macro transitions and the second covering micro-genetic transitions. The contributors show how both macro and micro-genetic transitions influence children’s everyday lives, and how these different transitions open up new possibilities for play, learning and development. The contributors draw on Vygotsky’s cultural historical theory and the understanding that children’s cultural formation takes form in a dialectic relation between children’s interests and motives and the institutional settings they participate in.

The international contributors to Supporting Difficult Transitions discuss examples of transitions that are problematic for children, young people and their carers. Focusing on vulnerable children and young people, the transitions include: starting school, changing schools, starting work, entering a new culture or a culture that has been changed to focusing on vulnerable children and young people. The book will be useful to practitioners involved in supporting children and their carers as they make these moves; students and course tutors in the caring professions; researchers; and policy makers and those who implement policy for children and young people. The different case examples are given coherence by drawing on cultural-historical approaches to how people move between practices. Particular attention is paid to how practitioners can build shared understandings of what matters for children and young people and for the institutions they are entering. These understandings become a resource to strengthen collaborations between practitioners or between practitioners and the children and their carers, as they support entry into new practices.

This book is about young people and their transitions throughout their first year of high school, deepening our understanding of how it is to be young and enter new institutional settings, and how to understand the developmental dynamics of youth life. It explores the everyday life of six young people as they enter high school and follows them closely as they encounter and try to make sense of the different standards, values, and demands that are built into the institutional setting of high school.The chapters explore the entanglements of personal motive orientation, interpersonal dynamics, institutional values and demands, as well as societal standards, and how subtle negotiations of who one is and ought to be are interwoven into the fabrics of everyday life. Hence the book explores variations on an institutional level – as different high school environments – along with variations on an interpersonal level, insisting on a person-environment reciprocity in the study of development. Using cultural-historical activity theory and ecological psychology derived from theorists including Bang, Barker & Wright, Gibson, Lewin, Hedegaard, Ilyenkov, Stetsenko, and Vygotsky, Sofie Pedersen argues that developmental dynamics among young people cannot be reduced to individual nor social processes alone but are connected to institutional conditions and to concrete places. By insisting on a wholeness approach to the understanding of youth development, Pedersen reveals the developmental dynamics that unfold in the everyday lives of young people, and sheds new light on youth life dynamics, including the challenges that young people face.

This book investigates pedagogical change across curricula and political transitions in the South African context, from 1994 to today. Tracing pedagogical transitions from post-apartheid to the demands of the 21st century, the book seeks to develop a novel approach to pedagogy that can meet the needs of students today. Adopting a cultural-historical lens, Hardman analyses the contradictions that arise due to transitions in the curriculum and describes the current state of teaching in primary schools in South Africa by focusing on how teachers teach scientific concepts. She goes on to examine the transitions from children’s indigenous science/maths understanding to school science/maths understanding, developing a pedagogy that can transform the learning of mathematics and science in developing contexts. Building on theories from Vygotsky, Davydov, Feuerstein, Freire, Bruner and Hedegaard, Hardman develops a new and inclusive, decolonial pedagogical approach that can meet the needs of a multicultural and multilingual contexts around the world.

This book offers theoretical and practical discussion on the inclusion of students with disabilities and learning impairments within the learning environments and beyond. It explores how social relations and social activities can support the personal and social transitions of children, young people and adults in need of specialized support. Written by academics based in Australia, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK, the contributors take a cultural-historical and dialectical approach as a starting point for special pedagogy. This approach enables special pedagogy to rise above biological-essentialist, environmental-social-training and purely sociological approaches and to focusing on development as a psychological as well as a social phenomenon. The chapters cover a range topics including deaf education, primary and secondary disabilities, play, mediation, incarcerated youth and mental illness. The contributors draw heavily on psychologist Lev Vygotsky’s work and his notion of the zone of proximal development.