Education and care for the youngest children on scientific ground: Experiences from practice- and evidence-based research
The project’s overarching concern is education and care for the youngest children (0-7 yrs) on scientific ground; in Sweden legislated in the school law. Compared to practices of medicine or nursing, the task has proven to be difficult: due to the lack of relevant evidence-based studies. In pace with the developments of brain imaging techniques, cognitive psychologists have initiated bridging the gap between research on the embodied brain and education, but have mainly focussed on older children, or learning easy to measure, i.e. mathematics. The youngest children’s socio-emotional development, care and learning have earned less attention, partly due to discontent and test-averseness in preschool and among educational researchers. The aim is to provide a comprehensive scientific discussion on the possibilities and problems involved in performing practice- and evidence-based research on development, care and education for the youngest children (0-7 yrs) to be presented in the form of a monograph. Experiences from international and national practice- and evidence-based research is analysed and discussed. This includes my experiences as a professor of Education, leading the first Swedish educational neuroscience research project in preschool with 432 children and 98 educators, involving brain-imaging techniques. The contribution is knowledge about the conditions for practice- and evidence-based research for stakeholders and schools and for researchers planning future research.
Final report
The sabbatical project aims to finish research disseminations and foremost by writing a monography as a comprehensive analysis on what can be learnt from the first interdisciplinary randomized control trial (RCT) in regular preschool-settings in Sweden which involved in-situ brain-imaging techniques (VR Dnr 721-2014-1786). The study engaged 432 children, their families, 98 educators at 29 preschool-units in a collaboration that entailed two different pedagogical interventions, interdisciplinary data-collections, parental surveys, and extensive testing of children pre- and post-interventions. Hypotheses focused on children’s attention, early math and language-development, socio-emotional, and communication skills. The study enrolled researchers from early childhood education, linguistics, cognitive neuroscience, and developmental psychology, working in collaborations across disciplines and with educators and educational stakeholders. Given the test-averse preschool, where all forms of testing of children are no longer performed by educators and very rarely performed by educational researchers, the collaborations across disciplines and with educators entailed some specific challenges. These challenges concerned possibilities of bi-directional collaborations among researchers in relation to how to understand the different methodological practices required to do an RCT, as well as the conceptual usage tied to practices of testing, ethics, etc.
Based on the experience made from this, in Sweden, unique and extensive project, the monography provides an innovative, wider and more comprehensive scientific discussion on the possibilities and problems involved in performing multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary research practices and collaborations across disciplines that involve the youngest children (0-6) in services of care and education. The research practices involve both interdisciplinary evidence-based research on development, care and education for the youngest children, as well as traditional social-science methodologies, and transdisciplinary Feminist New Materialist emergent forms of knowledge-productions, performed together with children. All within the framework of the same project.
The findings of the analyses made for this book hold an innovative take on inter-, multi-, and transdisciplinary inquiries with younger children and in educational contexts. This monography positions its’ discussions in terms of a postdevelopmentalisms research paradigm. Post-developmentalism has previously been theorized in terms of a critical analysis which questions the impact of developmental psychology and knowing from the natural sciences (genetics, micro-biology, neurosciences) to understand the development of children in educational settings. The present monography takes a different positioning, in line with the developments both in critical and posthumanist social science research, and in the neuro- and developmental sciences, which partly overlap in terms of descriptions of ontological underpinnings. Hence, the discussions revolve around what can be seen as shared ontological descriptions, which understands nature-nurture (in Naturalist epistemologies) and natureculture (in New Materialist, Posthumanist and Neo-Realisms epistemologies) as co-dependent and co-constituted. Postdevelopmentalisms research can be inclusive of multiple epistemologies and methodologies, working together in different ways to produce knowing, underpinned by an approach called ontological relationality.
The significance of the analyses of this book is that they can contribute to the planning, developments and performances of future multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary research in the fields of child sociology, child studies, child-geographies, critical studies, early childhood education, child and youth studies, developmental sciences, cognitive- and neuro-sciences involving children aged 0-6 years (or older).
The monography as the main publication from the sabbatical-project
The monography is titled: Naturenurture and natureculture co-emergences in studies with young children. Postdevelopment in multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary studies, Contract was signed 2022-12-22 with Palgrave MacMillan NY, after a blind-review of proposal, for an OA monography. An additional writer – Dr. Linnea Bodén – was invited to write three of the ten chapters that involve her research with children.
Part 1. The problem, the Context, and the Project
Chapter 1. On Development, developmentalism, and the emergence of postdevelopmentalism
The aim is to untangle the many different but also, at least in part, overlapping and coinciding meanings of the concepts of development, but also of developmentalism and postdevelopmentalism relevant for research concerning young children.
Chapter 2. The field of child, childhood, and early childhood education studies
The chapter will sketch a cartography ‘map’ over the most dominant kinds of research studies on, to, with, for, by young children, which together constitute a wide-ranging field of ontological and epistemological forms of studies.
Chapter 3. “Those whom the research concerns”. The doing of intervention research as inter-, multi-, and trans-disciplinary inquiry
This chapter tells the story of the doing of the large-scale over-arching randomized control trial – the Enhancing Children’s Attention-project, to sketch a background for the remaining chapter. The chapter is written primarily from the point of view of stakeholders.
Chapter 4. The apparatus of knowledge-production in inter-, multi-, and transdisciplinary inquiry
The fourth chapter discusses how doing a randomized control trial as inclusive of multiple other forms of research methodologies can be understood differently, while thinking with postdevelopmental theorizing.
Part 2. The Children
Chapter 5. On, to, for, with and by – troubling ethics in developmental and postdevelopmental inquiry involving children
The chapter challenges notions claiming it to be “more ethical” when the research is done by children, than when it’s done on children. This enables a problematization of a “scale of ethics”, where child-research could be described as inherently good or bad.
Chapter 6. Standardized tests: children in the middle of a “dangerous” research practice
This chapter challenges the test-averse context in Swedish preschooling by making transgressive forms of analyses of the video recordings made of the standardized pre- and post-test performed as part of the intervention study.
Chapter 7. The hat: Exploratory research with children to investigate participation
The chapter unfolds the methodologies, practices and events enacted among children, researchers and technological devices when exploring the experiences of using EEG-caps (or “hats” as the children named them), during testing.
Part 3. The Researchers and another take on postdevelopmentalism
Chapter 8. Gendered trouble in the interdisciplinary bakery. On how to bake an interdisciplinary layer-cake
Chapter eight discusses the difficulties and possibilities in the research-team of doing interdisciplinary research with young children in this particular context of the divorced psychology-pedagogy couple, using the metaphor of the interdisciplinary bakery.
Chapter 9. The problem of language and metaphor in interdisciplinary collaborations
This chapter is situated in the interdisciplinary (gendered) bakery of desired researcher collaborations, featuring the ECA-project. The discussions from prior chapters are taken into the problem of language in interdisciplinary communication at the scale of singular words and a general vocabulary.
Chapter 10. Spaces of interdisciplinary reciprocity. Reconceptualizing postdevelopmentalisms inquiry underpinned by ontological relationality
The chapter summarizes and deepens previous analyses in the book and argues for how a reconceptualized postdevelopmentalisms inquiry of multi-, inter- and/or transdisciplinary research practice with young children can be understood underpinned by ontological relationality.
Other results from the project and collaborations initiated and performed
1. Guest-professor visit at the University of Bath, UK, Jan. 1 st to Feb. 7 th 2023
As a result of the sabbatical-period spent as a guest-professor at the department of Education, University of Bath, invited by Professor Carol Taylor, a number of plans for future collaborations were made:
- Research symposium in Stockholm for 40 senior researchers planned for spring 2025;
- Two special issues for Gender and Education and a book-project for the Global Childhoods Series. Both initiated.
- PhD seminar collaborations: connecting PhD candidates at Bath University with the PhD students at Stockholm University for seminars and conferences. European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry is 2024 is the first planned conference.
2. Research-disseminations of the project during sabbatical
The following additional disseminations from the project apart from the monography have been as follows.
- A keynote-presentation at the European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry in Portsmouth, UK. January 12th 2023.
https://ecqi2023.projects.portsmouthuni.ac.uk/keynotes-and-workshops/
- Paper-presentation at the Nordic Education Research Association conference in Oslo, Norway March 15th, 2023.
https://www.oslomet.no/en/about/events/nera-2023
- Peer-reviewed book-chapter: ”Multiple Storying of Crisis and Hope: Feminist New Materialisms as an emergent ethico-onto-epistemology of multiple messmates at different scales”.
- Guest editor of special-issue for the scientific peer-reviewed Nordic journal: Nordisk Barnehageforskning, on the topic of A Pedagogy of Listening, which is another name for the group-based intervention that was evaluated in the RCT-project. 11 peer-reviewed articles.
Based on the experience made from this, in Sweden, unique and extensive project, the monography provides an innovative, wider and more comprehensive scientific discussion on the possibilities and problems involved in performing multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary research practices and collaborations across disciplines that involve the youngest children (0-6) in services of care and education. The research practices involve both interdisciplinary evidence-based research on development, care and education for the youngest children, as well as traditional social-science methodologies, and transdisciplinary Feminist New Materialist emergent forms of knowledge-productions, performed together with children. All within the framework of the same project.
The findings of the analyses made for this book hold an innovative take on inter-, multi-, and transdisciplinary inquiries with younger children and in educational contexts. This monography positions its’ discussions in terms of a postdevelopmentalisms research paradigm. Post-developmentalism has previously been theorized in terms of a critical analysis which questions the impact of developmental psychology and knowing from the natural sciences (genetics, micro-biology, neurosciences) to understand the development of children in educational settings. The present monography takes a different positioning, in line with the developments both in critical and posthumanist social science research, and in the neuro- and developmental sciences, which partly overlap in terms of descriptions of ontological underpinnings. Hence, the discussions revolve around what can be seen as shared ontological descriptions, which understands nature-nurture (in Naturalist epistemologies) and natureculture (in New Materialist, Posthumanist and Neo-Realisms epistemologies) as co-dependent and co-constituted. Postdevelopmentalisms research can be inclusive of multiple epistemologies and methodologies, working together in different ways to produce knowing, underpinned by an approach called ontological relationality.
The significance of the analyses of this book is that they can contribute to the planning, developments and performances of future multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary research in the fields of child sociology, child studies, child-geographies, critical studies, early childhood education, child and youth studies, developmental sciences, cognitive- and neuro-sciences involving children aged 0-6 years (or older).
The monography as the main publication from the sabbatical-project
The monography is titled: Naturenurture and natureculture co-emergences in studies with young children. Postdevelopment in multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary studies, Contract was signed 2022-12-22 with Palgrave MacMillan NY, after a blind-review of proposal, for an OA monography. An additional writer – Dr. Linnea Bodén – was invited to write three of the ten chapters that involve her research with children.
Part 1. The problem, the Context, and the Project
Chapter 1. On Development, developmentalism, and the emergence of postdevelopmentalism
The aim is to untangle the many different but also, at least in part, overlapping and coinciding meanings of the concepts of development, but also of developmentalism and postdevelopmentalism relevant for research concerning young children.
Chapter 2. The field of child, childhood, and early childhood education studies
The chapter will sketch a cartography ‘map’ over the most dominant kinds of research studies on, to, with, for, by young children, which together constitute a wide-ranging field of ontological and epistemological forms of studies.
Chapter 3. “Those whom the research concerns”. The doing of intervention research as inter-, multi-, and trans-disciplinary inquiry
This chapter tells the story of the doing of the large-scale over-arching randomized control trial – the Enhancing Children’s Attention-project, to sketch a background for the remaining chapter. The chapter is written primarily from the point of view of stakeholders.
Chapter 4. The apparatus of knowledge-production in inter-, multi-, and transdisciplinary inquiry
The fourth chapter discusses how doing a randomized control trial as inclusive of multiple other forms of research methodologies can be understood differently, while thinking with postdevelopmental theorizing.
Part 2. The Children
Chapter 5. On, to, for, with and by – troubling ethics in developmental and postdevelopmental inquiry involving children
The chapter challenges notions claiming it to be “more ethical” when the research is done by children, than when it’s done on children. This enables a problematization of a “scale of ethics”, where child-research could be described as inherently good or bad.
Chapter 6. Standardized tests: children in the middle of a “dangerous” research practice
This chapter challenges the test-averse context in Swedish preschooling by making transgressive forms of analyses of the video recordings made of the standardized pre- and post-test performed as part of the intervention study.
Chapter 7. The hat: Exploratory research with children to investigate participation
The chapter unfolds the methodologies, practices and events enacted among children, researchers and technological devices when exploring the experiences of using EEG-caps (or “hats” as the children named them), during testing.
Part 3. The Researchers and another take on postdevelopmentalism
Chapter 8. Gendered trouble in the interdisciplinary bakery. On how to bake an interdisciplinary layer-cake
Chapter eight discusses the difficulties and possibilities in the research-team of doing interdisciplinary research with young children in this particular context of the divorced psychology-pedagogy couple, using the metaphor of the interdisciplinary bakery.
Chapter 9. The problem of language and metaphor in interdisciplinary collaborations
This chapter is situated in the interdisciplinary (gendered) bakery of desired researcher collaborations, featuring the ECA-project. The discussions from prior chapters are taken into the problem of language in interdisciplinary communication at the scale of singular words and a general vocabulary.
Chapter 10. Spaces of interdisciplinary reciprocity. Reconceptualizing postdevelopmentalisms inquiry underpinned by ontological relationality
The chapter summarizes and deepens previous analyses in the book and argues for how a reconceptualized postdevelopmentalisms inquiry of multi-, inter- and/or transdisciplinary research practice with young children can be understood underpinned by ontological relationality.
Other results from the project and collaborations initiated and performed
1. Guest-professor visit at the University of Bath, UK, Jan. 1 st to Feb. 7 th 2023
As a result of the sabbatical-period spent as a guest-professor at the department of Education, University of Bath, invited by Professor Carol Taylor, a number of plans for future collaborations were made:
- Research symposium in Stockholm for 40 senior researchers planned for spring 2025;
- Two special issues for Gender and Education and a book-project for the Global Childhoods Series. Both initiated.
- PhD seminar collaborations: connecting PhD candidates at Bath University with the PhD students at Stockholm University for seminars and conferences. European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry is 2024 is the first planned conference.
2. Research-disseminations of the project during sabbatical
The following additional disseminations from the project apart from the monography have been as follows.
- A keynote-presentation at the European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry in Portsmouth, UK. January 12th 2023.
https://ecqi2023.projects.portsmouthuni.ac.uk/keynotes-and-workshops/
- Paper-presentation at the Nordic Education Research Association conference in Oslo, Norway March 15th, 2023.
https://www.oslomet.no/en/about/events/nera-2023
- Peer-reviewed book-chapter: ”Multiple Storying of Crisis and Hope: Feminist New Materialisms as an emergent ethico-onto-epistemology of multiple messmates at different scales”.
- Guest editor of special-issue for the scientific peer-reviewed Nordic journal: Nordisk Barnehageforskning, on the topic of A Pedagogy of Listening, which is another name for the group-based intervention that was evaluated in the RCT-project. 11 peer-reviewed articles.