Parents evening presentation

Kindergartens: inclusive spaces for all children?

Angelina Venetto

Key Terms

Social Infrastructure

Key Terms

Social Capital

Please click the icons to take you to each definition

Social Inclusion

Qvortrup and Qvortrup’s defiition of inclusion

The National Equality and Anti-discrimination Act

Theory: discrit

The theory is built upon the argument that “disability is not fundamentally a question of medicine or health, nor is it just an issue of sensitivity and compassion; rather, it is a question of politics and power(lessness), power over, and power to” (Devlin & Pothier, 2006, p. 2).

What did they do?

Background

Children with and without disabiliteis were recruited This article conducted qualitative assessment with a sameple of kindergarteners with and without disabilities to find out what creates a safe an inclusie space for kindergarten children

What did they do?

Background

There has been research to show that place and space are crucial, yet overlokoed, elementads to pedagogy There is some, yet limited, research stating how socio-spatial elements of the school enviornment can serve children with disabilities

What did they do?

Research Questions Which indoor and outdoor places in kindergarten are defined by children with and without disabilities as comfortable and inclusive spaces? What characterises these places?

What did they do?

Methods Inclusion criteria for students with disabilities Either: The child has physical, cognitive, or multiple disabilities. Or: The childs diagnosis process is ongoing The child has enough verbal language to be understood by a non-familiar individual.

What did they do?

Methods The child has no known disabilities or socio-emotional difficulties The child has enough verbal language to be understood by a non-familiar individual The child is not receiving special-education service and if possible is matched with one child with disabilities according to gender and age within the natural group.

What did they do?

Methods

• Individual drawings of activities and playful materials in kindergarten
• Group drawings of their kindergarten
• Individual guided outdoor and indoor tours, including digital photos of the best, the most boring and the scariest places. During these tours our role as researchers was to act as participant observers who did not initiate any activities, only responded to the children’s initiatives, questions and comments in a field-work manner.

• Group dialogues based on the children’s own questions

What did they do?

Methods 4 subcategories were created based on spaces children found to be attractive and playable as well as placed they fee are inclusive 1) Fixed small places with non-organised materials are group-inclusive 2) Fixed building-block rooms are attractive and open to playing 3) Large places with non-organised materials are ambivalent 4) In Kindergartens with fluid group organisation and innovative room organisation, the children do not feel this is inclusive

What did they find?

Fixed small places with non-organised materials are group inclusive Small indoor and outoor spaces are attractive to kindergateners These can consist of any area including under stairs, a storage room, under a slide, or behind the building These spaces are visabile, but not very accessible to staff. However, studnets know staff can get to them if needed

What did they find?

Main Takeaways The children here illustrate how children value spaces where they can use their imaginations When they are given the opprotunity to do this, they create a space they and other students believe to be inclusive

What did they find?

Main Takeaways They also value building block rooms where they can physically build different worlds They tend to be very innovative when they are eocuraged to use their imaginations

What did they find?

Main Takeaways The overall size of the kindergarten does not seem to influence the children’s possibility to construct inclusive spaces, have fun, feel safe and comfortable. But each department in Kindergarten must be quipped with materials and spaces thata re usable for children’s imagination regardless of ability level

What did they find?

Main Takeaways Children with cognitive and/or SE-difficulties found large areas difficult to practice peer-play while most of the other children loved these places. Large indoor areas turned out to be scary for children with SE-difficulties and they kept physically close to the staff.

What did they find?

Main Takeaways Challeges the idea of universally designed pedagogy and having new kinds of spaces availble for all children to feel included These spaces contradict tradiotnal classroom models

Activity

Under a large slide

In a storage closet

Activity

Blocks

A puzzle

Activity

Blocks

Puzzle

Activity

Question

Activity

Question

Activity

Question

Activity

Question

Based on the information provided, why do you think this would be consdered a safe and inclusive space?

Reference

Ytterhus, B., & Åmot, I. (2021). Kindergartens: inclusive spaces for all children?. International journal of inclusive education, 1-17.