Uppeldi og menntun - 01.07.2006, Page 105

10
s­uE doCkEtt
BoB PErry­
Continuity and Change in Early Child­
hood Education
Reflect­ions on t­he 16t­h Annual Conference of t­he Europ­ean Early Child­
hood Educat­ion Research Associat­ion
One of the enduring themes in recent early childhood publications and conferences
has been the apparent dichotomies surrounding continuity and change in early child-
hood education. For ex­ample, when a child first ex­periences childcare, there are
obvious changes – new people to meet, new places to be, different food – as well as
clear similarities – same family, same home, same bed. Similar analyses can be made
of other transition points in young children’s lives such as starting school, moving
house, receiving a new member into the family and parental separation. So, if all of
these activities – and many others that young children ex­perience – have aspects of
both continuity and change, what is important for children, their carers, families and
educators to consider? In this brief paper, we make these considerations based on
the recent literature around children starting school and numerous presentations that
were made during the recent 16th annual Conference of the European Early Child-
hood Education Research association, held in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Int­roduct­ion
The recent literature on children starting school is replete with discussions and debates
about continuity and change (Fabian & Dunlop, 2002, Clarke & Sharpe, 2003; Dockett
& Perry, 2007; Einarsdóttir, 2006; Pramling Samuelsson, 2006). Many children have
told us that they want school to be different from home or pre-school (Dockett &
Perry, 2005, 2007) while many early childhood educators have emphasised the need
for continuity between the prior-to-school and school ex­periences of children (Dockett
& Perry, 2004). as with many aspects of children’s transition to school, there seems
to be some conflict in these two perspectives. However, it is perhaps more fruitful to
consider them as complementary rather than contradictory influences on the success
of children starting school.
Fabian (2002) has described three categories of discontinuity as children start school:
physical, social and philosophical. Similar categories have been defined by kagan
(1991) as categories of continuity. There is no reason to think that successful transition
Uppeldi og menntun
1. árgangur 2. hefti, 2006