By Marion Burns
This blog considers some of the concerns I have around facilitating children’s transition from their homes to early learning and childcare settings and schools now that the Scottish Government have published their route map out of lockdown. My concerns include sustaining any form of physical distancing in play spaces. I worry about what kind of spaces children will find themselves in. To put a positive spin on this situation; children may be physically apart but will still be socially connected, won’t they?
To expect young children to remain physically apart is unrealistic and goes against everything we passionately believe in as early childhood educators. Children are naturally sociable, they learn by being close to whatever takes their interest. They get up close, to touch, to look, to taste, to move things around, to explore and interact with their environment. Children use all of their senses when they are playing, and they do this repeatedly to gain new skills and hone existing skills. They search for meaning, look for patterns and similarities, all the while forging a relationship with the world around them, and with those who love and care for them.
We often talk about the environment in terms of physical spaces, but the key part of the environment for children is the human, social environment of positive nurturing relationships. (Realising the Ambition, RTA, 2020:15)
Can we justify exposing children who exhibit signs of anxiety, stress or who have experienced loss, to transition into spaces that may cause them and their families further distress? And how will we meet the needs of those children who have faired better by being at home? When we reconnect with children and families in the coming months gauging how well children’s emotional resilience has stood up while at home will be a vital consideration. Of course there are more questions than answers and finding acceptable solutions will require meaningful collaboration between all of the players on the field, setting out and agreeing the parameters of the game. Parameters that prioritise children’s emotional health and wellbeing over anything else.
Let me rewind the clock now to December 2018, when I was asked along with two of my Education Scotland colleagues to refresh Scotland’s national practice guidance for early years: the sequel to the much thumbed Building the Ambition. Our brief was to create a document that celebrated the image of the child; acknowledged them as competent, full of curiosity, wonder, giving and receiving love, and care from others. Others who want only the very best experiences for them, even before birth. The golden thread of quality is therefore woven through every page of Realising the Ambition: Being Me. It speaks to those who want and make possible high quality interactions, where nurturing experiences in creatively designed spaces permit our children to start strong, to grow and develop in ways that reflect their individual needs, talents and capacities as beings in their own right. It reaches out to those who are passionate about children and who want to learn more, to further improve, by extending and building on their existing practice.
The publication of Realising the Ambition: Being Me has given voice to the child. A powerful voice that we need to hear, not just listen to. Children speak to us in a myriad of ways, through their spoken and unspoken gestures, in their gaze and with their bodies, in their interactions with us and each other. If we truly hear them then we will ensure that children in transition will have access to spaces that uphold their right to be heard and to play.
Unified space
Play that involves deep and meaningful engagement with the environment, in ‘spaces where interactions and experiences add value to what children already know and can do’ (RTA, 2020: 15). In my doctoral study, I conceptualise this type of physical spaces as a ‘unified space’ (Burns, 2018: 240). Unified spaces are where children feel safe, resilient, nurtured and understood. In the unified space there is familiarity; sameness that comforts and allows children to assert agency. In a unified space, children are empowered by practitioners /teachers to choose to play alone, or together, or in small groups, and with others who understand that children learn best when engrossed in play. Unified spaces do not compromise children’s wellbeing, or advise how far apart children need to be from us or each other, either outdoors or indoors.
Contested space
As we look ahead to realise the government’s route map phases, the challenge for us will be to avoid our children entering a different kind of physical space, a ‘contested space’ (Burns, 2018: 238). In the contested space, the child experiences a shift in the dynamics of friendships with peers and relationships with others. Contested spaces no longer look and feel familiar to the child and previously held memories are clouded by questions that children may be reluctant to ask. In the contested space, pedagogical practices are governed by rules and restrictions on where and how children are taught, what they will learn and how they will interact socially with their practitioners/teachers.
Having to design a contested space to established transitions practices in response to Covid-19 policies and/or guidance may cause great distress to practitioners, teachers and parents. They will need to work out how best to safely support our children in transition. However, in my study, I found that contested spaces are not fixed. I liken them to Wacquant’s perception of Bourdieu’s concept of ‘field’ and ‘they [spaces] can arise, grow, change shape, and sometimes wane or perish over time’ (2007: 268).
When we wrote Realising the Ambition we were living in different times. It is hard to accept that only a few months ago, children across the world hugged each other, they laughed, they cried, they tripped over, they had discussions, even had tantrums over what to take from home to their special spaces, as a comfort, or as an object to show their friends and others with whom they had formed an attachment. Our role will be to help each child connect, reconnect and to feel confident and resilient in the spaces they are about to step into whenever that happens.
How could we have imagined the significance of Realising the Ambition: Being me, it even gets a mention in the route map, affirmation indeed. Realising the Ambition: Being Me gives reassurance to us all, and empowers those who hold firm to the importance of creating unified spaces where children can play, in spaces where it is all right to be me.
Dr Marion Burns is HM Inspector with Education Scotland, previously HMIe. Her areas of specialism are early learning and childcare. She was previously HMI Lead Officer for early learning and childcare, and HMI Area Lead Officer for three education authorities in Scotland. She is passionate about children, play, transitions and implementing the ‘early level’ of Curriculum for Excellence as intended. She is enjoying part time working now having achieved Doctorate of Education in February 2019. She is Committee member of SERA early years and Non–executive Board Member of Early Years Scotland.
Image copyright: Marion Burns
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