The Findings

The Findings

 

Engaging teacher-researchers in the participatory action research process identified:

  1. The Participatory Action Research process is a successful process that engages educators to explore their curiosity about a matter of importance, to propose change and improve their professional practice.
  2. Early childhood classrooms are rich sites where ideas related to being a global citizen are already being negotiated and enacted among children from an early age.
  3. Educators provide opportunities that promote group interactions that guide and discuss respect, empathy and acceptance of difference, and can contribute to building effective global citizens.

Explicating educator and young children’s classroom interactions identified that:

  1. Facilitating classroom peer group interactions that guide and discuss respect, empathy and acceptance of difference can contribute to building effective global citizens.
  2. Enabling children to share their ideas and have their voices heard, validates classroom participation, being a classroom citizen, and the concept of global citizenship.
  3. Including the first languages of the children in everyday classroom talk helps develop their sense of belonging in the classroom.
  4. Using pronouns such as ‘we’ and ‘our’ support children to feel united and creates a sense of belonging.
  5. Facilitating talk about language and culture can help children understand the relationship between language and cultural identity, and consider the perspectives of their peers.
  6. Facilitating purposeful conversations about difference and similarities by sharing stories about interests outside of the classroom and talking about culture and language, encourage children to develop respect and understanding about culture for intercultural understanding and effective global citizenship.
  7. Facilitating problem-solving discussions about sharing and including peers makes explicit how aspects of global citizenship can be included in everyday activities.
  8. Facilitating opportunities to share stories enable children to find common interests and creates connections between home and educational settings.

Collecting young children’s perspectives on their classroom experiences identified:

  1. Using video-stimulated conversations provides rich opportunities for children’s voice to be heard and for educators to better understand children’s perspectives about their learning.
  2. Involving children in the research process facilitates their awareness of the feelings of their peers, guiding them to become change agents for effective global citizenship.

Outputs:

The project research team worked closely with the classroom teacher-researchers and QUT eMedia, to design, write, produce and create a suite of short videos (3-5 mins each) for two elearning modules:

  1. Participatory Action Research (PAR): Being a teacher-researcher: This module engages teachers with research techniques that extend professional learning.
  2. Empowering Global learners: Classroom practices to guide participation, communication and belonging: This module provides a framework of best practice for guiding intercultural, personal, and social capabilities of all learners.