Objects in early childhood education

Object-based learning is familiar in early childhood practice. Sociocultural theories of learning conceptualise objects as tools that support children’s learning, with predefined outcomes in mind. In contrast, new materialist thinking (Gamble et al., 2019) emphasises the interconnections between human and material worlds. From this perspective, scholars have considered how children and objects exist and emerge in relation to one another (Hackett & Rautio, 2019; Daniels, 2021).

Our two doctoral studies engaged with this thinking. Although situated in different contexts, namely museum education and Early Years classrooms, here we bring these two projects together. Vignettes from our different contexts richly illuminate young children’s myriad relations with objects and suggest what we might learn from children’s vibrant experiences with objects.

Illuminating vignettes

Rhythmic movement in the museum

Kiefer observing rhythms (photo shared with consent)

Image credit: Henry Moore: Rocking Chair No. 2 (On loan from a private lender)

Kiefer (pseudonym) was a three-year-old participant in Nicola’s study. He was fascinated by the long case clock: still, silent objects at first glance but partners in music and dance for attentive observers. The pendulum’s swinging was echoed by Kiefer’s body moving side to side in rhythm.

Later, Kiefer was drawn to a small bronze sculpture of a woman and child on a rocking chair: a moment frozen in time but an object that has also journeyed through 70 years since its creation, encountering a variety of different people and places. Through his engagement with the object, Kiefer himself becomes part of its story. Children’s engagement with objects means becoming entangled with their temporal as well as their physical or visual stories.

A Perspex object label jutted out at an angle from the display case. Kiefer pressed down on this repeatedly with both hands. The flexible plastic and the fact that the label was only fixed at the top meant that Kiefer was able to make it rock up and down, recreating the imagined movement of the woman and child. Together, Kiefer, the sculpture and the object label created a moment that was at once unique but also tethered to each of their past histories, and the future as I am recounting it to you now!

‘It is when children show us things about objects that we don’t already know that children’s “voices” are most powerful.’

Rhythmic movement in response to museum objects could be easily overlooked by adults who may be more attentive to intended learning and expected responses, but they show a high level of sensitivity and attentive responsiveness from very young children which is worth noticing and celebrating. It is when children show us things about objects that we don’t already know that children’s ‘voices’ are most powerful.

Moving and moved by classroom objects

Papercraft objects intended to prompt story play

Image credit: author’s own

Rupert and Indie (pseudonyms), two four-year-olds in Samantha’s study, listened to The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. After listening, Samantha introduced papercraft objects (pictured) and invited the children to ‘play the story’, exploring independently. However, instead of moving through the narrative sequence of the book, Rupert and Indie took turns to deliberately and rhythmically lift and lower the papercraft sun, moon and butterfly. When Rupert raised the butterfly, Indie lowered the moon and raised the sun, and vice versa.

Within this sequence, exaggerations in arm movements emerged: Rupert lifted the butterfly higher and Indie placed the moon lower. This exaggeration increased momentum, arms moved quicker to cover the vertical range. With this change in pace, the butterfly’s tissue paper wings flapped rapidly, joining in with the rhythmic movement, generating delight among the children. Responding to the butterfly, the children shook their papercraft pieces back and forth, laughing aloud.

The speed and delight of their movements and of the objects became literally hard to control. Objects fell out of hands and dropped to the floor, with the children collapsing after them. This rumbustious collapsing could be overlooked as ‘silliness’. However, seeing children and objects as coming into relation and being together points to the profound impact objects can have on young children’s engagement and delight when exploring stories through object-based approaches.

Discussion

These two brief vignettes show how children and the objects may direct learning in unexpected, but generative, directions. Young children may delve more deeply than intended by adults and, in turn, objects may surprise with their responses. Given these insights, we suggest that educators prioritise practices of generous noticing. Such practices involve educators taking time to attend deeply to the actions and reactions of children and objects, remaining open to the myriad unfolding possibilities when objects are part of children’s experiences. We see object-based learning as complex. Unlike practices that frame objects as tools, we propose approaches to object-based learning that are inclusive in its expansiveness, enabling not imposing possibilities.

References

Daniels, K. (2021). Notions of agency in early literacy classrooms: Assemblages and productive intersections. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 21(4), 568–589. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798419866489.

Gamble, C. N., Hanan, J. S., & Nail, T. (2019). What is new materialism? Angelaki, 24(6), 111–134. https://doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2019.1684704

Hackett, A., & Rautio, P. (2019). Answering the world: Young children’s running and rolling as more-than-human multimodal meaning making. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 32(8), 1019–1031. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2019.1635282.