Educating Young Children: A Lifetime Journey into a Froebelian Approach

The Selected Works of Tina Bruce

Tina Bruce

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781317330288
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Educación general

In the World Library of Educationalists international experts compile career-long collections of what they judge to be their most significant pieces – excerpts from books, key articles, salient research findings, major theoretical and practical contributions – so the world can read them in a single, manageable volume. Readers will be able to follow the themes and strands and see how their work contributes to the development of the field.

Educating Young Children: A Lifetime Journey into a Froebelian Approach draws together Professor Tina Bruce CBE's most prominent writings from her accomplished 40-year international career in education centred on the Froebelian tradition.

Chosen to illustrate the changes that have occurred in Professor Bruce's thinking and practices over the last four decades, carefully selected readings address key Froebelian themes such as literacy, play, inclusion and creativity. Short introductions are provided for each chapter and excerpt, helping readers to understand the significance of what is presented and explaining how this relates to other chapters in the book.

Including chapters from Tina Bruce's best-selling books and articles, as well as leading journals, this collection offers a unique commentary on some of the most important issues in Early Childhood Education over the last four decades; it will be engaging and inspiring reading for anyone interested in the development and state of early years education in the UK and internationally.

1 Gathering thoughts

The book chapters and journal articles selected and gathered together in this publication do not always take a precisely linear approach and, of course, not all are included. There have been some consistent themes, which have been an important part of my journey into a Froebelian approach to the education of young children, deeply influencing how educators are guided to work with their families in a spirit of partnership. These themes surface in different ways at different times. They impact on the way I have gathered together my thoughts, sometimes directly, and at other times in an indirect way. But journeys are like that. Sometimes we take a motorway, or a direct flight. At other times we meander a little, so that we are able to dwell in important moments and to reflect in a deeper way. Gathering together these professional writings over a lifetime of writings has made me realise that my journey has not yet ended. Significant markers for my future educational focus and areas of interest had already begun at the age of three years in Miss Smith’s nursery group. Deciding which writings from past publications to include has caused a great deal of thought. Life goes in circles as much as it does in lines. It also became necessary in this exercise to locate my thoughts now and where they might go in the future. This quotation from my second book, Time to Play in Early Childhood Education (1991c, p. 1) sums it up:

At the introductory celebrations of the Commonwealth Games hosted in New Zealand in the 1989, the Maori dancers sang, ‘Let us know you as you were in times gone by. Let us know you as you are. Let us know you as you dream to be’.

The influence of family and teachers

The influence of family runs deep, and I was fortunate to be born into one that was full of love, nurture and rich experiences. My first excursions beyond home, family and their friends were with Miss Smith, an AMI Montessori-trained directress. She worked with ten children in a house near my home. The next landmark influence was the Froebel-trained teacher Miss Greaves when I was seven years old (or ‘top infants’ as we called the class then). I wrote about these two wonderful women in a chapter that Professor Lesley Abbott invited me to contribute to the book she was editing for the New Millennium Series called Early Education Transformed (Bruce, 1999a; Abbott and Moylett, 1999). So often people will acknowledge the influence of teachers at the late primary or secondary and tertiary levels of education, but rarely do early childhood educators receive the attention, recognition and appreciation that they deserve. I valued having the opportunity in writing that chapter to reflect on the way these teachers built on my strengths and helped me in my early childhood education. These positive beginnings to my education may even be the reason why, without realising their lasting influences upon me, I later chose to explore the Montessori method and to look for the commonalities between Froebel, Montessori and Steiner in my first book Early Childhood Education (1987).

I met Chris Athey, who was my Education tutor throughout my initial training, at the Froebel Educational Institute (FEI) in the 1960s. I later had the privilege of working with her in the 1970s when I was appointed Head of the Froebel Nursery Research Project School, located in the grounds of the college. She was the Froebel Research Fellow.

Chris Athey’s approach in the research school was to build on the work of pioneers such as Susan Isaacs. Parent partnership, observation of children and a Froebelian approach to the curriculum and pedagogy were key elements. In her book (1990, p. 15) Chris wrote:

Most fundamental research has been carried out in privileged or high-quality environments, the kind Owen tried to create. Most of Piaget’s findings came from the study of privileged children as did Susan Isaacs’s. The motivation behind research is to find new knowledge. In compensatory programmes, on the other hand, remediation of underfunctioning is the aim and is usually tackled by applying what is known.

In her ground-breaking book, Extending Thought in Young Children: A Parent–Teacher Partnership (Athey, 1990), I was touched that she referred to me throughout as ‘Mrs B’, the convention Susan Isaacs used in her books (now classics) Intellectual Growth in Young Children (1930) and Social Development in Young Children (1933).

Across the years, since I first began training as a Froebel teacher at the age of 18 in 1966, I have gradually come to the realisation that to be a Froebelian is a way of life. It makes living both easier and harder. It is easier because the Froebelian approach offers guidance which brings freedom to spend time and effort with children and their families, and also with colleagues in ways that feel deeply fulfilling and are rewarding to experience. Seeing children and their families flourish or cope according to what life brings is a joy and a comfort, especially when things are tough for them. It is harder to be a Froebelian and to make a helpful contribution when the parents of the children we work with have an entirely different perspective on life, or when colleagues and governments are working in a way that is challenging and opposite to the Froebelian approach to education.

Because successive English governments have espoused a deficit model of education, focusing on what is lacking in the educational system (such as children who do not learn to read easily rather than building on the fact that the majority of children do), there is now a worrying disconnect between schooling and education in England. The beginnings of this can be marked from 1989 with the introduction of a National Curriculum. The battle to keep four-year-olds in nursery education rather than propel them into primary education as Year R continues. In the other countries of the UK this is a less stark situation. Against this backdrop of increased and earlier adoption of a formal, transmission approach to primary education, the educational approaches of Montessori, Steiner and Froebel have much in common. Instead of schooling with a prescriptive and formulaic transmission mode of teaching, the focus is on education as integral to home life, just as much as it is central during the time children spend in school. These pioneer educators rejected schooling as utilitarian. They did not believe that an early introduction to formal education was best. But Montessorians, Steinerians and Froebelians are also very different from each other. They have great respect for each other because of their major agreements, but they also engage in what might best be described as arguments between friends! I have been and am influenced by them all, but I find myself consistently, a Froebelian.

Practice and theory – the art and science of interweaving

Something that has constantly exercised me is the relationship between practice, theory and philosophy in educating young children. When theory is imposed on practitioners by those who are academics in a variety of disciplines, who have no experience of or training in early childhood education, practitioners are quickly undermined and even intimidated. They become externally controlled. Two articles were written in 1985 at the invitation of Roy Evans, editor of the journal Early Childhood Development and Care as a ‘conversation’ between two Froebelians. Lynne Bartholomew, Head of the Redford House Workplace Nursery for the children (babies to five-year-olds) of staff and students at the University of Roehampton and the Queen Mary Hospital, and Senior Lecturer at the university, wrote her article, ‘It’s all very well in theory, but what about in practice?’ (Bartholomew, 1985). My article was titled ‘It’s all very well in practice, but what about in theory?’ (Bruce, 1985).

Having a philosophical framework was the only guiding tool available for educators until the emergence of disciplines such as psychology, sociology, anthropology, neurosciences … and others. The Froebelian tradition and philosophical framework (articulated through its principles) is an example of this, and one which influenced some of the major transformations in the teaching of young children. Although newer lenses, such as those listed above, have become available and are deeply useful, having a set of philosophical principles brings a consistency, clarity, illumination and analysis to practice with possibilities for modification of practices rather than confusion, whilst avoiding rigidity and prescription in practice.

If the Froebelian principles link with practice and theory, they feed off and into each other through an interactive and interconnected process. Then practitioners learn how to articulate and develop reflective practice in professional ways, exemplifying the highest standards of practice. Froebelians have always been known for this. Before the introduction of stricter ruling on the way advertisements are framed (until the late 1980s) there used to be job advertisements stating ‘Froebel-trained preferred’. I was sent to my first teaching post with the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) in the early 1970s following a phone call to the school from the Local Authority Inspector placing primary-age phase teachers in schools, saying, ‘I am delighted to be able to send you a Froebel-trained teacher’.

Part of the Froebelian approach is the consistency it both enables and encourages. An important aspect of my training was the way we were constantly asked to address the question, ‘But is that Froebelian?’. Practice that is riddled with contradiction is confused practice, and takes away from the wholeness that is central to Froebelianism. I focused on this in my first book Early Childhood Education (1987), which Marten Shipman, the Dean of the School of Education, encouraged me to write. I revisited the issue of wholeness (what Froebelians call interconnectedness or unity) in subsequent publications.

For Froebelians a lack of unity and wholeness of approach leads to a lack of quality in the education of young children. Education begins at birth and continues throughout life according to the Froebelian approach. Unity is a sophisticated concept which involves the practitioner, parent or other adults becoming aware of the relationship with the self, others and the universe. It therefore deals with the spiritual aspect in the development of learning, which is a lifelong journey. Spirituality is not, of course, the same as believing in a religion. It is part of every human’s development. In the publication of the Blockplay Collaborative Research Project working with five schools, I wrote ‘Reflections’ in the book Exploring Learning: Young Children and Blockplay (Bruce, 1992) which was edited by the deeply respected Research Assistant Pat Gura, who by the end of the project had become the Assistant Research Director. The selected piece reflects on the wholeness and consistency of the interactive (Froebelian) approach that we took both philosophically and theoretically throughout the research project.

Related to this Froebelian concept of wholeness and unity is the emphasis on developing Froebelian principles in practice. Since the Revisionist Froebel Movement in the 1920s, described by the Froebelian scholar Professor Kevin Brehony (2000) as being when there was without doubt a need to do away with the rigid and prescriptive practice of the early interpretations of the Froebel ‘method’, there has been an emphasis on the principles rather than on prescribed practice. Certainly a principled approach was central to my Froebel training at the FEI in the late 1960s. In 1987, in my first book Early Childhood Education, I coalesced ten principles of early childhood education, but emphasised that the sustained interpretation, analysis and implementation of these in practice was a crucial element. I have revisited these ten principles in many publications across the years from 1987 onwards and others have drawn on them. These are perhaps some of the best-known and quoted parts of my work, together with the 12 features of play explored later in this and other chapters.

Froebelians sharing their thinking through joint publications

Professor Marten Shipman encouraged me to write my first book, and to hold back writing about play in that book as the publisher may ask for a second book. This is what transpired in the book titled, Time to Play in Early Childhood Education (1991c). Once again it was Marten Shipman who suggested that I should write a proposal submitted to the Froebel College Governing Body for a research study on ‘something very Froebelian’. I decided that a research project looking at wooden blockplay (Froebel’s Gifts) would be appropriate. The Chair, Rory Hands, received this with enthusiasm. He and Jill Redford, the Principal of Froebel College, were very supportive of the research as it progressed. The result was a booklet and video, Building a Future, as well as countless workshops and lectures at conferences, continuing across the years.

Working with and sharing publications with colleagues who use a Froebelian approach has always felt important. During the late 1980s, the collaborative team of colleagues participating in the Froebel Blockplay Research Project were the Research Assistant and Editor of the book, Pat Gura, together with those working in the schools: Ann Bridges, Debbie Albon, Tracie Taylor, Dorothy Wickson, Rob Ratcliffe, Lizzie Linklater, Liz Gibbons, Jill Verycken, Rakshah Shah, Brenda Duckett, Lynne Bartholomew, Sharon Galvin, Tracey Bond, Peter Missiuro, Krystina Dabrowska, Gayna Cooper, Frances Mulligan and myself as Director of the project. The book, Exploring Learning: Young Children and Blockplay, was published in 1992.

Redford House Nursery was led by Lynne Bartholomew, and her deputy June Byne, and staff during the early 1990s. Thinking together about how to record our observations of children resulted in the publication of the book Getting to Know You: A Guide to Record Keeping in Early Childhood Education and Care (1993), authored by Lynne Bartholomew and myself. Examples of work being undertaken in other settings included Jennifer Buckle, Sheila Vizard, Margy Whalley, Katie Mairs and the staff at Pen Green, Joyce French, Ann Hedley, Beryl McDougall, Ann Alderman, Meg Knott, Janet Yerbury, Patricia Juanette, Karen McCloud, Jean Stevens, Pat Gura and the staff at Greenmead school. An archive has been created of the work of Lynne and her team at Redford House, located in the Special Collections of the University of Roehampton Library.

An exciting project with the National Children’s Bureau Under Fives Unit, working with Professor Dame Gillian Pugh and Dorothy Selleck, led to a series of six programmes for parents on BBC Radio 4 (1999), titled Tuning into Children, in which I was the resident expert, and Kirsty Wark was the skilful interviewer. This was repeated and produced as six BBC cassettes. I was then asked to write a book for the BBC, Tuning into Children (1999b), to accompany the BBC Education Television video filmed in a variety of settings.

A partnership working with Carolyn Meggitt – a community health nurse and expert – resulted when we were introduced to each other by Elisabeth Tribe – Commissioning Editor at Hodder & Stoughton – in the late 1980s. She had noticed that there was no up-to-date textbook for National Nursery Examination Board (NNEB) or Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) students. Carolyn and I wrote one together, dividing up the chapters according to our expertise and emphasised what was important to us, as well as linking into the syllabi of the courses. We made sure that the textbook included aspects relevant to all four countries of the UK, and that it was not ‘England-centric’. The book Childcare and Education (Bruce and Meggitt, 1996) sold 20,000 copies a year and remains a best-selling textbook, but the first of the (so far) 6 editions was less syllabus-bound, and so our ‘voices’ could beam out beyond the constraints of the requirements of a syllabus. In later editions of the textbooks, Julian Grenier and Julia Manning Morton have become welcome additions to the team.

Early Childhood Practice: Froebel Today (2012b) is the award-winning book which the Edinburgh Froebel Network asked me to edit so that we could document the way Froebelian practice is developing once again in Scotland. It contains chapters by leaders of the deeply respected Edinburgh Froebel Network, Lynn McNair and Jane Whinnett, and the impressive team of headteachers leading outstanding nursery schools: Maureen Baker, Stella Brown and Chris McCormick. It also includes chapters by Helen Tovey and Jane Read (University of Roehampton), Marjorie Ouvry (the moderator of Froebel courses at the Universities of Edinburgh and Roehampton) and Jenny Spratt (who gave a keynote lecture at one of the annual Edinburgh Froebel Network conferences about Froebelian finger plays; Spratt 2011). This group has developed a Froebel course which they teach at the University of Edinburgh, which is rippling out to other parts of Scotland, beginning with Glasgow. This is through recognition of the excellence of the training it provides, cited in the Independent Workforce Review commissioned by the Scottish Government (2014a), with a recommendation for more Froebel courses to be established (or in many ways re-established). It is heartening that Froebelian training continues to be linked with quality in educating young children but is a challenge in that it is currently hard to find or access in the UK. Where it does exist, the training increasingly addresses how the tangible aspects of Froebelian practice were used and considers to what extent this might be relevant to practice today, which is a positive step into future relevance of Froebelian education.

This book provides a recent example of the ways in which colleagues trained in the Froebelian approach can use Froebelian principles as a navigational tool in developing Froebelian practices.

Books, articles and pracademia

Professor Lesley Abbott OBE, who led the Birth to Three Matters framework in England (David et al., 2003), encouraged me to encourage colleagues to publish, in books and academic articles, but to also engage in writing for practitioners in professional journals and magazines. I have always taken her advice seriously. Dissemination of this kind is important. Practitioners will read the required books when studying on courses, but as part of their routine work practice might well read Nursery World, which has been offering news and reflective articles for practitioners, politicians and parents since the 1920s. Liz Roberts and Ruth Thomson are deeply important figures in the dissemination of thoughtful, reflective and analytic practice. I was as proud to have been given the Lifetime Achievement Award 2014 (and privileged to receive the tribute given by Dr Stella Louis) as I have been of other awards for more academic endeavours. One was the ‘Outstanding Woman Scholar in Education’ given by the University of Virginia Commonwealth in 1989, but I know that my heart will always be in developing good Froebelian practice. Academic, professional and trade journals are all important in achieving the dissemination of Froebelian practices and principles. So are books. Book-sellers who are supportive of Froebelian ideas are invaluable. Rich...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Gathering thoughts
• 2 Teachers who inspired me
• 3 What am I? A Montessorian? Steinerian? Froebelian? Eclectic? Is it important?
• 4 Which comes first, a philosophical framework, theory and research evidence or practice? What do teachers and other practitioners working with young children need to bring out their best work?
• 5 Working with principles which are interpreted and embedded in articulated practice
• 6 The importance of parent partnership and the development of moral values and self-discipline
• 7 Play – a very complex thing
• 8 Finding how to position myself in relation to play
• 9 Inclusion – commonalities, differences … fragmentation or wholeness?
• 10 Cultivating creativity
• 11 Remaining a generalist rather than becoming a specialist within one area of early childhood education
• 12 Changing political climates
• 13 How best to train teachers of young children
• 14 Remaining a Froebelian but still exploring why, and wondering, will I always be one?
• Bibliography
• Index