AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
2.2 Entering and conducting research
The target group of our research project were caregivers in
ECEC facilities, providing care up to the third year of the child's
age, and specialists in early childhood education, together with
parents. Research terrain was represented by state-run childcare
facilities, up to the third year of age of the child, and maternity
centers in Bratislava. We managed to carry out research in 4
childcare facilities in Bratislava. At the end of the research
project, we managed to implement a workshop (creative
workshop) in one of the childcare facilities. We have presented
some of our findings, where the research results also raised
questions - space for participants to discuss. Participants were:
experts of the Pedagogical Faculty of Comenius University,
deputy of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, employee of
the Red Cross - organizes a course for educators up to the third
year of the child’s age, participants in the caregiver’s course, a
representative of pedagogical-psychological counseling and
prevention, parents of children, the Director and Deputy
Director, together with the educators of the ECEC facility in
Bratislava. We have organized 4 discussion groups with child
caregivers, 4 discussion groups with parents of children and one
with experts dealing with various areas of early childhood
educating and care. In the research project, we have gained a
great deal of research data. After returning from the field, we
have transcribed them from the audio recordings into text form.
After studying the research material thoroughly, we opened the
text using the open coding method, where we read it several
times and proceeded by sentences or short sections, looking for
similar phenomena. Again, we focused on the localization of
phenomena in the text of the statements, which had a clear
narrative character, and the analysis which was based on
reducing, categorizing, clarifying, synthesizing and comparing,
in order to obtain the most comprehensive vision of our research
object.
3 Interpretation of research results and research findings
Institutional education for early childhood in Slovakia takes
place in ECEC facilities, providing care up to the third year of
the child's age. We solved the project of our research at the time
when the so-called "act of the day nursery centres", of the
Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, was being solved and met
with senior executives of the Department of Labor, Social
Affairs and Family in Bratislava, to presented our project to
them. We did not agree on the cooperation, but we met with
them at the last discussion seminar. The research was conducted
in nursery centers and state-run facilities in Bratislava. These are
family-type facilities with permanent staff. Caring for the child
is the responsibility of the caregiver, but we have identified that
in the state facilities, the majority of employees have the
qualification of a nurse (currently the study program is disabled).
They have many years of experience and many have been in the
facility for 30 years and they carry out their work at a high
professional level. We also note that cooperation with parents is
a priority for all facilities. The day of the child in the nursery has
a set timetable and precise rules are set for all participants, which
determine the direction of the facility.
Children's nurseries just before 1990
In the past, nurseries, nowadays, they are ECEC facilities for
children up to the third year of the child's age. Very many of
them were abolished in the 1990s. The nursery workers were
nurses, who had knowledge at the level of GCSE in paediatrics,
and were prepared for work with children. At that time, the nurse
was an expert who helped parents. The staff of the nursery (at
that time) had support in methodological manuals and literature.
Educational components were elaborated in detail, could have
been viewed in the library, directly at the facility. The
instructional nurseries were set up in each city district and were
responsible for the quality of the facilities under their leadership.
We note that they used to conduct quarterly trainings for nursery
workers, where they showed them how to carry out the process
of educating in the facility. Before taking up their jobs, nurses
and nursemaids had to practice in instructional nurseries.
The
nursemaids did not pass the school-leaving examination, but a
training in the form of a courses. We identified that it was
prescribed when and what educational component should be
implemented in the process of education. The nurses consistently
led the health and injury documentation of the child – (called)
the filter, they prepared for each educational activity according
to precisely defined criteria. The instructional nurse, speech
therapist, and psychologist controlled the prescribed quality of
all facilities. A pediatrician was also a support worker for the
nursery.
We assume that good, proven elements in the educating process
persist to the present day. But some of the caregivers said that
above all, they do not currently have the support of
methodologies,
speech therapists, psychologists and
paediatricians, who no longer cooperate with the facilities on
daily basis. The subjects consider current state nurseries as high-
level facilities. When comparing the past, they see it as an
amateur approach. They consider it unsuitable for a child to have
a precisely defined educational component at the exact time of
day. It is desirable for the caregiver to have thoughtful and
planned activities, even if the education is to be conducted
throughout the whole day. Access should be individual and the
caregiver should respond to the current physical and mental
settings of the child (for example, he / she can be teething).
Organization of daily activities for children in an ECEC facility,
up to the age of three
The operating time of the facility ranges from 06:30 am. until
5:00 pm, or sometimes until 5:30 pm. It is adapted to the needs
of parents. In the past, children stayed at the institution from
06:00 am until 6:00 pm, later until 5:00 pm. Directors of some
facilities have accommodated the facility's operating time in
favour of parents. Since you no longer need to open the facility
in the early morning hours, current employed parents have the
option of picking up the child from 5:00 pm. until 5:30 pm,
depending on facility. The smooth operation of the facility is
ensured in a three-shift operating time. In the morning, the
caregiver receives each child individually. In collaboration with
parents, he/she lists the group's diary and filters out children who
might endanger other children in the group, or the child itself. If
the caregiver discovers a child's unfavorable health condition, it
is sent to the pediatrician for examination and subsequently
accepted after submission of a satisfactory health certificate. The
caregiver recordes every child's injury. She/he works intensively
with the parents. Both sides are closely informed of each change
in the child's behavior. The caregiver also keeps records of
attendance. Morning exercise, snack and hygiene. In this part of
the day the child learns to coordinate its physical activity,
improve basic self-help skills, habits and learns to sit on the
potty. Caregivers use different strategies to motivate the child to
sit on the potty, stay there for a while, until the need is made.
Disposing of diapers is a serious element in the development of
the child, a step towards its independence. Therefore, we will
discuss this topic in more detail later. We identified targeted
educational activities, in a set of activities, carried out almost
throughout the whole child's stay in the facility. The child's
cultural literacy is developed by education. Based on research
data, we have identified 7 areas of education:
1.
Culture of communication - language, speech and
communication as the core of education.
2.
Movement culture - body movement, cognition and
progressive control.
3.
Safety and care culture - healthy lifestyle and health
protection.
4.
Culture of getting to know - physical and natural
environment and its discovery.
5.
Culture of coexistence - social environment and
coexistence with others.
6.
Culture of behavior - emotions, attitudes and their balance.
7.
Culture of interpretation - art.
Caregivers prepare educational activities for children. Namely,
it is an artistic, movement, intellectual and musical field of
education, and self-help skills activities. The children in the
facility are divided into groups according to their age: infant,
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