Timelines are a central tenet of the Montessori method, used to help children understand complex concepts like deep time and geological eras. Drawing from this method, this article takes a timeline approach to Montessori education in Ireland. This article traces its history and links Montessori's position to developments in Irish society and primary school pedagogy. Whilst Montessori education has been in evidence in Ireland for over 100 years, it has remained on the margins of mainstream primary education. Contextualised against the backdrop of Irish primary curriculum development phases, this article illustrates the rise and decline of Irish Montessori education. This article argues that Montessori education remained on the margins of the mainstream in Ireland due to two main factors: (i) child-centredness of the method, which was in opposition to the favoured authoritative teacher-centred approach of the Catholic Church, and (ii) the failure of Montessori education training providers to make adequate provision for Irish language instruction.
Contemporary reality is subject to constant social, cultural, and technological changes, which have an impact on schools. Teachers are required not only to be ready to respond effectively to changes and educational instability, but also to have highly developed teaching skills, including the skillful use of new technologies. The COVID-19 pandemic, through the introduction of remote learning, has forced teachers to 'makes friends' with modern teaching aids. Although it is inevitable that teaching will be based on IT year after year, not all teachers are convinced about it. The average age of Polish teachers is almost 46 and is constantly rising (see: OECD 2024), and these teachers are somewhat sceptical about using modern technologies. Teachers must take up the challenge of the modern age - today, they are dealing with 'digital children'. Some of them grew up in the e-era, while others had to adapt to it. In order to find out the attitude of Polish early childhood education teachers towards modern teaching tools, a survey was conducted on a group of 146 people (of various ages). The main objective was to gain insight into their approach to digital tools, taking into account their level of teaching, seniority and age.
This study examines sustainability competencies among primary education students in Spain, focusing on gender differences and the relationships between knowledge, attitudes, and skills. Using an ex post facto design, data were collected through a questionnaire administered to 649 students aged 10-13 from 10 public schools. The results show no significant gender differences in sustainability competencies, aligning with research on primary students but differing from studies on older populations that report gender-based differences in environmental knowledge and attitudes. This suggests that gender socialisation and cultural influences may become more relevant as students age. Significant, low, and positive correlations were identified between knowledge and attitudes, as well as knowledge and skills, suggesting modest relationships among these dimensions. These findings are consistent with the 'knowledge-action' gap. The findings underline the need for future-oriented and action-based educational strategies to strengthen students' agency.
This study examines teachers' classroom leadership practices as instructional leadership and their relationship with student engagement in Omani primary and elementary public schools. Using a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design, quantitative data were collected through questionnaires measuring classroom leadership and student engagement, followed by semi-structured interviews with teachers. The findings showed high levels of classroom leadership and student engagement across behavioural, emotional, and cognitive dimensions. Classroom leadership practices significantly predicted student engagement, with participation leadership emerging as the strongest predictor. Qualitative findings showed that teachers viewed instructional leadership as part of everyday classroom practice, reflected in lesson organisation, supportive relationships, active participation, and responsiveness to students' needs. The study highlights the importance of teacher-enacted classroom leadership in strengthening student engagement and offers implications for teacher professional development and educational leadership policy.
This article reports on a Close-to-Practice research project between Nottingham Trent University and a primary school in the Ashfield district, exploring how young children experience agency in outdoor learning environments amid their marginalisation in current Early Years policy. Using child-led inquiry and practitioner-researcher collaboration, the study examined how adult discourse around risk shapes children's engagement with outdoor spaces. Findings highlighted tensions between adult-defined boundaries and children's desire for autonomy, with children expressing both enthusiasm and uncertainty in outdoor play. Children's voices informed each stage of the process, with iterative cycles of inquiry developed in response to their feedback. Working within a 'third space' of shared expertise, the partnership disrupted traditional hierarchies between academic and practitioner knowledge, modelling transformative collaboration. The study contributes to debates on outdoor provision in the EYFS and underscores the value of practitioner-led research in creating inclusive, responsive environments where children's agency can thrive.
This study examines the evolution of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in India from 1947 to 2025 through a qualitative historical policy document analysis. Drawing on national policy documents, committee reports, and curriculum frameworks, the paper traces six major phases from early welfare initiatives to the institutionalisation of ICDS, rights-based reforms, and the systemic restructuring under NEP 2020. Findings reveal persistent gaps between policy ambition and implementation, marked by infrastructural deficits, uneven quality, and limited professionalisation. The analysis highlights how longstanding structural challenges continue to shape India's pursuit of equitable, developmentally appropriate early childhood education.
There is minimal research into history curriculum planning in the early primary phase. Given the extensive debates about curriculum for older children, this is a major omission and ignores the importance of this phase. Based on semi-structured interviews with five history subject leaders, this study shows that content decision-making is informed by both present and future aspirations for the child as a learner of history. Decisions are also informed by a desire for purposeful subject and phase connections. The study recommends closer attention is given to the distinctiveness of the early primary phase when constructing the history curriculum for young children.
Teaching literacy to deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students is particularly challenging in education systems shaped by spoken-language norms. In Iran, where Persian literacy underpins formal schooling, this study explores how elementary teachers make Persian literacy accessible to DHH students in Grades 1-3. Drawing on qualitative interviews with teachers in specialized Deaf schools across Iran, the study examines literacy instruction under resource-constrained and hearing-centered conditions. Inductive thematic analysis generated four themes: integrated multisensory and experiential literacy instruction, contextualized and unified literacy instruction, hierarchical skills instruction, and specialized materials for DHH learners. Findings show that teachers combine sign language, lip-reading, gesture, real objects, enactment, structured sequencing, and visually oriented resources to make Persian linguistically visible and conceptually meaningful. Rather than following a single instructional route, they continually adapt, repair, and supplement a curriculum not fully aligned with DHH learners' communicative realities. The study argues that these practices constitute a locally grounded visual-linguistic pedagogy shaped by both professional creativity and systemic constraint. It contributes to Deaf literacy scholarship by foregrounding an underrepresented Iranian elementary-school context and showing how teachers construct accessible literacy pathways within a phonocentric educational system.
This study examines the lived experiences of teachers in rural multigrade classrooms in Uttar Pradesh, India, where instructional, administrative, and caregiving demands converge. Using a phenomenological approach based on in-depth interviews with nine educators, the research identifies three conceptual insights: survival pedagogy, compliance inversion, and concurrent role fracture. Survival pedagogy describes improvised teaching practices arising from structural constraints rather than intentional design. Compliance inversion captures a shift in teachers' professional focus from pedagogy to administrative compliance, driven by intensified bureaucratic and digital demands. Concurrent role fracture explains the simultaneous and conflicting enactment of teaching, administrative, and caregiving roles within a single moment, producing fragmentation in professional identity. Together, these insights offer a new analytical framework for understanding multigrade teaching in under-resourced contexts. The study highlights the need for policy reforms that address structural shortages, reduce administrative burdens, and recognise the complex, qualitatively distinct nature of multigrade teacher work.
Food-related learning in school may have long-term implications for students' food choices and health. Early primary school students in Sweden are not provided with structured, curriculum-based food education. Through a case study involving co-designed, subject-integrated food education, this study aimed to explore food-related learning among early primary school students. The research question was: What kinds of food-related learning moments emerge during lessons designed to promote subject-integrated food education? Data were collected through classroom observations and field notes. Thematic analysis generated three types of food-related learning moments: exploratory, collaborative, and non-negotiable. The findings underscore the importance of a skilled food educator in capturing both playful and serious food-related learning moments in early primary school.
This study evaluates the impact of a curriculum-integrated chess programme on 5th-grade mathematics and Portuguese language achievement in municipal public primary schools in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The programme integrates weekly chess instruction into the regular curriculum in socially vulnerable school contexts. Using school-level panel data from the national standardised assessment system, the analysis applies a Difference-in-Differences design with school and year fixed effects. Results indicate a positive and statistically significant effect on mathematics, with estimated gains of 0.10-0.15 standard deviations - roughly one-third to one-half of a typical academic year of learning. These effects are robust across balanced and unbalanced panels and event-study specifications testing pre-intervention trends. No significant effects are found for Portuguese language. While international evidence on chess instruction remains mixed, rigorous evaluations from developing countries are scarce. These findings provide large-scale quasi-experimental evidence that curriculum-integrated chess instruction can improve mathematics achievement in public primary schools, suggesting a practical and low-cost pedagogical strategy for resource-constrained settings.
This qualitative study explored educators' experiences when nurturing inclusion for learners with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in Zimbabwean regular primary school classrooms. Eight educators who work with learners with ASD, drawn from eight urban and rural regular primary schools, participated in the study. Data from face-to-face semi-structured individual interviews and field notes were analysed using a social constructivist approach. Three themes emerged: inclusion in regular classrooms, educators' difficulties in teaching learners with ASD, and enabling factors. Contextual individual and systemic difficulties hindered educators' proactive strategies for cultivating inclusive education. The article concludes with implications for policy and practice and recommendations for future research.
This study examined ecological factors shaping rural volunteer caregiver turnover intentions. Guided by an adaptation of Bronfenbrenner's Process-Person-Context model, the study utilised in-depth interviews with 12 caregivers and contextual observations. Reflexive thematic analysis reveals that turnover intention results from synergistic ecological collapse rather than isolated stressors. Macrosystemic neglect - defined by institutional invisibility and cultural devaluation - constructs a resource-deprived microsystem wherein daily caregiving processes function as mechanisms of depletion. Consequently, the daily proximal processes of caregiving shift from pedagogical engagement to depleting labour. These external pressures progressively erode the caregivers' intrinsic altruism and professional identity, fuelling intentions to withdraw for economic survival. The study concludes that turnover intention signifies a systemic collapse rather than a failure of individual commitment. Sustaining this volunteer workforce requires policy interventions that shift from tokenistic support towards formal professionalisation and reliable remuneration to restore ecological balance.
This study investigates how Rosenshine's (2012) Principles of Instruction can support trainee primary teachers in developing their teaching of physical education (PE). Twelve PGCE trainees on a PE specialism pathway participated in a Rosenshine-inspired immersion programme, combining theoretical input with practical application through games-based approaches. Data were collected via three focus groups and analysed using thematic analysis. Findings indicate that trainees valued Rosenshine's principles as a structured framework for lesson design and delivery, particularly in scaffolding, modelling and questioning. The integration of non-linear pedagogy and the STEP model enhanced independent practice and engagement. However, challenges emerged around curriculum planning, effective questioning and limited opportunities to teach PE during school placements. The study highlights the importance of sustained professional development and practical teaching opportunities to embed pedagogical strategies. Recommendations include prioritising PE teaching in initial teacher education and further research into questioning techniques and curriculum design.
Curriculum reforms are significant initiatives to address students' and societal needs. However, in many cases, these reforms overlook the key voices involved in the process. In this qualitative study, we conducted interviews and qualitative surveys with 50 teachers across five schools in Tanzania to explore their perceptions of the newly implemented curriculum for students entering this educational level at around 13 years old. Using the educational change policy framework, we identified that teachers understood the curriculum but reported implementation difficulties; a disconnect between classroom instruction and exam expectations, creating a paradox between curriculum requirements and teacher practices. These gaps stem from insufficient teacher training, inadequate preparation, and some teachers' unwillingness to adopt new teaching methods. We recommend that policy actors ensure teachers' voices are included in these reforms to enhance their understanding. Also, policies should be tailored to train teachers on reforms before implementation proceeds and is handled by the teachers.
Taking and managing risk is an important dimension of children's play and a valuable experience with a variety of developmental benefits. However, in twenty-first-century Western societies, a growing tendency to avoid risk and expand control of children's play activities in favour of their safety is witnessed. This is especially relevant to educational contexts, where research on risk-taking in play is fairly limited. This paper draws on ethnographic research with 6-12-year-old students and their teachers in a Greek public primary school to explore the dimension of risk in children's play during recess. The findings of the study highlight children's active engagement in risky play during recess, against the tendency of adults to restrict it, and emphasise the need to re-examine risk management in school playgrounds by introducing risk education processes which balance risk in play with safety.
As digital tools become increasingly integrated into early years education, teachers' roles in mediating children's digital literary experiences require deeper examination. This multimodal ethnographic study investigates how early years teachers adapt and transform pedagogical roles when mediating children's engagement with two narratives apps (The Hat Monkey and The Monster at the End) on an iPad. Drawing on multimodal social semiotics, the research theoretically explores how diverse teacher roles are enacted within digital reading contexts where text, audio, visual, and interactive elements converge simultaneously. Findings reveal that digital environments fundamentally transform teacher mediation practices, requiring educators to dynamically orchestrate multiple communication modes while navigating technological affordances.
Despite the rising profile of play-based learning, many early childhood teachers find it challenging to incorporate Loose Parts Play - where children direct their own learning using open-ended resources. This educational design research study designed and tested a professional development programme in four Thai demonstration schools, using a sequential mixed-methods approach. The 102 teachers' needs assessment showed difficulties on theoretical grounds and a lack of support from institutional grounds. A hybrid learning course with six modules was developed and implemented with 38 teachers using a one-group pretest-posttest design. Results indicated that teachers' design competencies increased significantly (t = 4.53, p<.001, d = 0.61). Participant satisfaction was high (M = 4.80). The mix of delivery models and reliance on locally available materials raises the possibility of potential relevance in low-resource settings. The lack of a control group limits causal inference, but this inquiry offers early evidence on the practicality of the curriculum and on transferable design principles.
