Inclusion at Botany Downs Kindergarten Centre of Innovation 2006-2008

Chapter 5 Continuing inclusion-monitoring phase

The third component of Lyons and Kelly’s (2008) model (see Figure 1) is the continuing inclusion–monitoring phase. During this phase, teachers cement, reflect upon and continue to develop inclusive practices. Lyons and Kelly talk of the “‘flow’ from one phase to the next that constitutes the process of inclusion.” They stress that “inclusion is a process – not an event or a simple point in time” (p. 432).

Initially we considered the continuing inclusion monitoring stage to be the time after transition until the child leaves BDK to go to school. However, it became increasingly evident that aspects of our monitoring phase looped back over the transition and pre-inclusion phases. The looping back occurred through our commitment to ongoing reflective practice. We modified the diagram to reflect this reality (Research meeting notes, October 2008).

Figure 11: THE ADAPTED INCLUSION PHASES
(Adapted from Lyons & Kelly, 2008, p. 432).

The data in the continuing inclusion / monitoring phase of inclusion was collected through:

• Parent surveys
• Teacher focus group interviews
• Entry/ exit surveys
• Interviews with the morning children
• Interviews with former students
• Anecdotal records
• Digital images
• Research meeting notes
• Staff meeting minutes
• Observations
• Case stories drawing together data from different sources.

For each child and their family, as they reach the continuing inclusion–monitoring phase of inclusion we examine the processes we have in place and the relationships we have built. Further possibilities are explored.

Research question: How do visual communication tools invite and extend engagement with children and their families in the continuing-monitoring phase of inclusion?

Early in the COI research, portfolios were identified by the teachers as a visual tool of engagement and a key tool in the practice of inclusion (Research meeting notes, August 2006; Teacher focus group interview, November 2006). Portfolios contain information for families, welcome pages and narrative learning stories. Through the portfolios children’s learning progress can be monitored, their interests built upon and their learning extended. In the first week of a child’s attendance we encourage connection with their portfolio by inserting stories and photos immediately.

A parent survey focused on portfolios

In our first year as a COI, we decided to explore the functions portfolios have for processes of inclusion. A survey was carried out to ask parents about their child’s portfolio. Fifty six of the 90 parents given the survey form in November 2006 responded.

The first question was, ‘Who initiates looking at the portfolio?’

When these findings emerged, we wanted to the reasons for these answers. A mini cycle of observations was conducted. These showed us that parents tended to look at their child’s portfolio with their child as they arrived and they looked at the portfolios by themselves while the children were at group time at the end of session. We observed parents using the portfolios as a tool to settle their child at kindergarten (Research meeting notes, August 2007).

Joshua provides an example. Every day upon separation he chose to look through his portfolio with his mother. She commented, “Everyday we would start at the beginning of his portfolio and look through every single page. He made sure we never missed a single page out. After we had looked at each page he would move off to an activity without an adult.” (Anecdote, December 2007).

Another question asked, ‘What do you look at in your child’s portfolio?’

It was evident that the visual aspects of the portfolios - the photos - were a significant “tool of engagement”. Most learning stories have one or more photos embedded within them. Combining the relevant categories, there were 58 mentions of the photos. Typical comments included: “I enjoy the stories and the photos and how it reinforces memories for John. It creates a lot of conversations,” and “It is the only way we can see what the children are doing at kindy without being there. I feel privileged to see he has these great moments.”

It appeared that parents were able to be included in ‘what their child did all day’ through reading their child’s portfolio. They frequently expressed surprise over their child’s achievements, as there were comments such as: “I never knew my child could do that.” The parents also said that they enjoyed seeing their children’s learning developing over time. Comments from the parents included:

The comments helped to confirm that we were making connections with the child’s family, and through the portfolios we were including more parents in their child’s kindergarten experiences.

For the question, ‘What does your child look at in their portfolio?’ families reported that their children engaged with the photos and recounted the stories to them via that medium. Sharing photos and recounting stories recorded in portfolios at home supports and extends the children’s learning in both environments. Revisiting kindergarten experiences strengthens their sense of belonging to our place. Moreover “reading” portfolios is in line with the socialisation model of emergent literacy (McNaughton, 1995). McNaughton argues that each setting provides activities that reflect their valued socialisation practices, and the children’s expertise is situated in these activities.

When we asked the question, ‘Who has taken their child’s portfolio home?’we found that 45 of the 56 respondents had and 11 had not. Most were taken home monthly or every two months. Three said that they took the portfolio home weekly. At home, families had more opportunities to engage with it, to gain understanding of what their child was learning at kindergarten and to make their own contributions to the portfolio. We found that 38 of the respondents had made contributions to their child’s portfolio before the survey. The survey triggered a flurry of additional contributions to the portfolios, with many parents making comments such as, “I really must do that.”;  “I’ve been meaning to do that!”  Such comments encouraged us to give gentle reminders to families regarding making contributions to their child’s portfolio.

We asked the families who they thought their child showed their portfolios to at home. The replies were categorised as follows:

We were intrigued with the response regarding the dog. When we shared the photo of the child showing their portfolio to a dog on our big screen projector, two other parents came forward to say that their child also showed their portfolio to the dog. The analysis of the data led us to a greater appreciation of the connections a child and their portfolio can make with important people and animals in their lives.

From further analysis of the parent responses we found that three themes emerged regarding what they wanted to see in their child’s portfolio:

Twenty also expressed appreciation of the contributions made by teachers.

Analysis of the teacher focus group interview and survey data found a clear alignment between the two sets of data. Teachers valued portfolios because connections with the child’s family, and because they record and celebrate the child’s achievements.

As a result of the findings and our reflections we took a number of action steps. We introduced:

Anecdotal data indicated that the link between home and kindergarten was strengthened by more frequent, two-way flows of information. One parent commented, “Jarrod couldn’t wait to show his portfolio to his Dad and brother and he couldn’t wait to bring the portfolio back to kindergarten just in case the teachers had something else to put in it.”

Interviews with the morning children about their portfolio

After gathering adult perspectives on portfolios, it was decided to explore children’s views and identify what it was that engaged them with their portfolios. Two questions were asked of our forty five morning children in individual interviews conducted by the teacher researchers during three morning sessions in November 2006:

Children for whom English is an additional language were interviewed in their home language by two parents fluent in the children’s home language.

Many children liked to start at the front of their portfolio and work through each page. We often had to re-ask the question: “Which is the page that you like the best?’ to bring focus onto these pages. Two features emerged as favourites.

The first was contributions from home. The second favourite feature was any page common to all children’s portfolios. For instance, Lucy identified her favourite part as a photograph of herself at the beach sitting on her father’s shoulders. Jack said his favourite photograph showed him making a paving slab at home with his dad. “I only like my paving stone that was written down. My Dad wrote it down. I made it for all of us. It’s in our garden. That’s the page I like looking at.” Antony said, “That’s when we went to Burger King and my Dad came; your Dad came later.” (Children’s interviews, November, 2006).

The second most popular type of portfolio page related to events at kindergarten. Children said, “I’ve got one like that.” We decided to call this group of responses ‘the familiar’. The events included BDK customs of celebrating birthdays and having fundraising events such as a kindergarten family night at Burger King. For instance, Jacob said, “Look, that’s my party (4^th birthday at kindergarten). I got a patch (badge!) I got lots of patches now (name badges from trips).”

This choice was validated from video data. Antony was videoed looking at his portfolio with Ryan saying “I’ve got one like that” to a generic page recording a trip. He went on to say, “I was there too, and my brother came, and your brother came too, eh?” In videos taken of children on the sofa by the portfolio shelf the children sit together with their portfolios finding pages that are the same.

In addition, during the poroporoaki (farewell) when a child leaves, most show a preference for the pages that are common to all portfolios. “I liked doing my hand prints. See that’s my hand, its bigger now” (places his hand onto the picture).

Children also showed a preference for photos where they were photographed with their friends. Noah said: “Do you remember Joshua? I like him. He’s gone to school now. Do you remember him? Look there’s Josh again - we’re playing with those block things and building roads. Look, Josh is happy.” Noah obviously enjoyed making the connections to his friends again through his portfolio. There did not appear to be a preference for photographs that the children had taken themselves.

Contrary to expectation, the learning stories developed by teachers did not rate a mention by the children. It appeared that children preferred to see events that were familiar to them. Not only were they able to articulate the story related to the picture but these familiar events allowed them to make connections with each other enhancing their feeling of belonging and inclusion. (Research meeting notes, March 2007)

In response to the question, “Who do you like to show their portfolios to?” most of the children stated that they liked to show it to their Mum and Dad. For instance, Nathan said: “I like to show it to my family … to my Dad and my Nanny and to Stella. I like showing it to my dog Stella. She says “woof”. Stella said, “I like that part where you made that doggie (a wooden dog that Nathan had made for Stella).” Rhea stated: “That’s Sammy (dog). I showed him but he went to sleep on it. I show it to my Mum and Dad and my sisters.” Lucy also referred to her pet. She said: “I show it to Mummy and Daddy and Meggy and Nana and Grandad when they come over to my house and Casper too. He’s my cat. I like to show it to Poppa. He says it’s brilliant.”

One action step that followed from the responses about children’s preference for stories from home was the development of All about Me books. Children took photos of all the things that were important to them at home. They took photos of their bedroom, their toys, their house, their letterbox or anything that was important to them they arrived with their photos on CD, pen-drives or emailed  them to us. Some children borrowed our kindergarten cameras to take the photos. Each child dictated their words to go with their pictures and then they published (laminated and bound) their books. On the day they were published the children were happy to share them with their friends and then the books were taken home.

We had anticipated the books staying at kindergarten so that the children could show their special things to their friends. It seems that the children really needed to show their family at home. We needed to engage in possibility thinking again. It led us to publish two “All about Me” books – one for kindergarten and one for home. By the end of the week, without any further promotion, children were bringing in their photos in many formats to make their own books. The books stimulate our discussion with the child about their home, strengthening our understanding of each child. As well, the conversations with parents led the parents to share personal information about their child that deepened our relationships. At kindergarten, the children would often walk around with their book under their arm ready to show it to anyone who showed interest (Research meeting notes, December 2007).

A second action step involved us developing another style of portfolio to extend our connections with children and their families, the digital portfolio.

Digital portfolios

Each child has a digital portfolio in which their photos and stories are archived at kindergarten. When a child leaves this digital portfolio is burnt to CD with a photo printed onto the CD label for the child to take home. In response to a short questionnaire asking families what they thought of the digital portfolio, how it was used and how it compared to the child’s portfolio in a book, all families indicated that these were a popular addition to the family photographic archives.

One parent told of how, on her daughter’s fifth birthday, Lucy had said, “Can we look at them now, before we open up my Bratz doll?” “She sat there glued to the slide show (and so did I), and loved seeing all her friends who had since gone to school. She recalled all their names and gave a running commentary. It will be something that she will treasure for life”. “A great visual which prompts the memories of a special time (we don’t seem to remember our pre-school years!)”. “A valuable visual that complements the fantastic portfolios”. Another parent said, “He got really excited when he saw his portfolio”. Another parent said, “He got really excited when he saw the photos. He remembered what he had done and loved all his friends in the photo”.

It appears that the digital portfolio had an impact at the end of the child’s time at kindergarten, providing a feeling of belonging to BDK way beyond the child’s years of attendance. Digital portfolios added another element to feeling a sense of belonging to BDK. In isolation, that may appear unimportant. The CD provides a means of maintaining memories and feeling connected. Moreover, a number of families said that they had copied the digital portfolio and sent it to family in New Zealand or in other parts of the world so that they feel included in their relatives’ lives. They provided virtual memories for extended families. Parents said they would not have sent the child’s portfolio in book format as it is too precious.

Interviewing former students about their memories of kindergarten

Following this thread, we decided to interview six school children who had previously attended BDK. We were curious about their ongoing sense of connection with their kindergarten experiences two years after leaving kindergarten. All six said they looked at their kindergarten portfolios regularly. Three had them on a bookshelf in their bedroom. One child said his portfolio was away in a safe place. Five of the six children talked about the other children in their portfolio who were still their friends even though some did not go to the same school. All the children could relate events recorded in their portfolio. These older children referred more to the stories in the text rather than the pictures. For example, Benji talked about sliding down the slide in a cardboard box. Benji also talked about a puppet show based on the story, The Little Mole that Knew it was None of his Business.

It appeared that portfolios provided a strong connection between the child, the family and the kindergarten. A heartwarming comment came from another BDK ‘graduate’, who said, “I’m going to keep it forever and show it to my children” (Liam). Through the portfolio, memories could be shared and revisited maintaining a sense of connectedness and increasing opportunities for enhancing the children’s learning. Connections between home and the early childhood setting are significant in the ecology of human development (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998). Portfolios are very important tools that teachers use to build strong connections with families.

Other visuals and ICTs that promote inclusion of children:

The action steps taken as part of our COI research frequently involved the addition or use of ICTs to enhance our inclusive environment. A summary of the range of tools that were added in connection with our tenure as a COI includes:

Each term at BDK we develop a behavioural contract for the kindergarten with the children. One of the contracts developed during the research project is captured below:

 

The contract is used in a number of ways, and adapted when necessary. For example, after reflecting on a sand-throwing incident we made an addition to the Ok/ Not Ok group contract about sand (Staff meeting minutes, August 2007). We realised we needed to add photos to make it more user-friendly for children who respond best to visuals. We have been told many anecdotes about this process being used at home by parents, and by children with their siblings.

Some ICT innovations were initiated by parents.

Georgia’s mother Kelly had attended a visual communication course that we had run at kindergarten as part of being a COI. Her enthusiasm for visual tools led her to make a video about BDK for Georgia to have as a keepsake. She supported Georgia to take photographs of her favourite things at kindergarten, and together they had edited the photos into a movie. We were so impressed with the result that it became the introduction to BDK on our website.

Visual communication tools have had a powerful impact on the programme at BDK (Research meeting notes, August 2008). Very often the children are the teachers and the teachers are the learners. Visual communication tools are not our only tools of communication but they are tools that reflect recent socio-cultural changes in society, tools that help us build an inclusive environment (Burbles & Callister, 2000). Additionally, visual communication tools are a means through which children’s social competence and self efficacy can be developed.

Other tools add value too. One further action step taken to strengthen our inclusive environment and to assist children who learn better through visual representation was teachers accessing those with language skills to write in children’s portfolios in their home language.

Research question: How do teachers support the development of social competence and self efficacy in children during the ongoing inclusion–monitoring phase?

Literature about social competence indicates that as children have the opportunity to practice and manage different social situations they become more confident and more adept, more resilient. Moreover, resilient children are likely to be critical thinkers who can assess situations and find solutions. Longer term, these children are able to believe in themselves - and to take charge of their own lives. They become independent, competent, self confident and self reliant (Kaiser & Sklar Rasminsky, 2007).

To help foster social competence, ‘random acts of kindness’ (Lundin, Paul & Christensen, 2001) are recognised and shared. The story below is a ‘snippet’ that was written for Philipp, shared with the children and his family, and then placed in his portfolio.

 

Building social competence and self efficacy in the children at BDK is not only a goal (Bandura, 1997; Katz, 2008); it is also a means of creating a caring, inclusive kindergarten environment.

Teachers are constantly watching for opportunities to build social competence, often assisted by information or advice from parents.

Research question: How does an inclusive environment enhance the learning of all children in the ongoing inclusion–monitoring phase of inclusion?

The children at BDK see the use of visuals as part of the daily routine and will assist the children on the autistic spectrum by fetching their visuals to show them what to do. For instance, Tahlia was making noises at group time and Conner zapped off the mat to get a visual showing Tahlia making noises with a red line crossed through it. Tahlia looked hard at the visual resource, pointed to it and stopped the noises.

This was an excellent example of how a child with additional needs had learned to respond appropriately, given a prompt from a visual tool, and other children had learned to enhance the inclusive environment. We argue that this is how all children learn and benefit from an inclusive environment.

Documenting points of difference

Being part of the Centres of Innovation programme prompted us to document our points of difference with regards to inclusive practice. One is times of attendance. Sessions are discussed with parents of children with additional needs as they transition in to kindergarten. A common adaptation is accepting the child directly into the morning session, even though she or he may be relatively young. Not only does the time of day work better for the child in question, we have noticed that older children are more competent communicators for the child with additional needs. The older children have a better understanding of how they can assist and include the child; they contribute to our inclusive environment.

Otherpoints of difference documented in our COI research records included:

• Not asking the ESW to sign the visitors’ book as they are not considered to be visitors
• Asking ESWs not to wear their name badges that say ‘Group Special Education’. We feel it is impossible to truly ‘include’ a child when there is an adult standing nearby with a badge identifying them
• Expecting ESWs to work with all of the children so they come to be viewed as a teacher who can facilitate relationships between all children
• Encouraging (and giving support to) ESWs to use the cameras and to write learning stories.
• Expecting ESW to work together for support and mutual problem solving.
• Encouraging flexible hours that suit the child, the family and the ESWs
• Ensuring ESWs (also the cleaner and administration staff) all have communication pockets (the same as the teachers) so that they can receive newsletters and correspondence
• Calling the ESWs teachers and role modelling respect for them.
• Encouraging ESWs to have portfolios and large photographs (like the teachers) to share their home lives with the children and other adults
  Using visual communication tools for all – children and adults.
• Developing, making or buying resources to meet the learning needs of individual children
• Inviting parents to attend professional development with staff, and
• Offering parents the use of the technologies and resources in the kindergarten.
  

Another point of difference was our reporting to the children about the COI research. At each presentation of our research we asked for permission to photograph the audience so that we could show and tell the children who our audience was and explain why they were interested in their stories. These actions included the children in the flow of information in relation to COI work.

This list keeps growing and evolving.

Exit surveys

In 2007, we asked six families who had just left kindergarten to share their thoughts on being ‘included’ and given a sense of belonging at BDK. Below are the responses that gained more than one mention:

• being told to ‘make yourself at home’
• being made to feel welcome
• child always being greeted
• teachers always available
• teachers always happy to answer queries
• photographs being emailed home
  

This survey affirmed that attention to detail was appreciated by the families and helped them feel included at BDK. Ongoing monitoring ensures that this standard is maintained.

Conclusion

Continued monitoring using data collection and analysis keeps us noticing, recognising and responding with inclusive possibilities. The next chapter shares case stories that illustrate inclusion in action at BDK.