Insights into early-childhood educators’ perceptions of children

Abstract

This study concerns the views of early childhood educators about children and attempts to interpret the narrative patterns that reflect the child’s perception of the early childhood educators interviewed. Our sample includes 15 early childhood educators who have worked in nurseries for several decades. In our qualitative research, we used the method of individual oral questioning, including the narrative interview technique. Our computer-assisted qualitative data analysis was carried out using the content analysis software Atlas.ti, which is based on grounded theory. The analysis of the narrative interview texts is based on the analysis strategy and coding logic developed by Glaser (1992). The conceptual framework of our research is Pukánszky’s concept of the child, which serves as a guide when analyzing the narrative interviews. In the process of inductive category creation, we were faced with a large amount of data, during the substantive coding of which we categorized the concept indicators and based on this, we interpret our results in terms of four main categories (Society, The nursery, The early-childhood educators, The family/The child). These main categories are intertwined, so the four main categories can be interpreted in relation to each other. In the present study, the family/child category is presented to describe the perception of children by early-childhood educators. As well as examining the views about children, the views of the parents were also revealed to us, the analysis of these patterns was helpful in getting to know and interpreting the children’s perception of the early-childhood educators. In early-childhood educators’ narratives, the effects of social changes, digitization and the stimulus-rich environment on children and families are evident throughout. The early-childhood educators interviewed unanimously point out that the emotional state and behavior of today’s children reflect the imprint of these influences. The characteristics of idealized childhood are also shown in the narratives, so in addition to the early-childhood educators’ perception of children, their image of children also emerges from the interviews.