Child Conferencing

We then interviewed the children and asked questions like, what it meant to be in this place? These are the responses that stood out the most to us!

1) What do you like most about your learning environment?

2) What don't you like about being here?

3) Did you make these pictures on the wall?

4) This picture is the infant room, do you like that room?

5) What is you favourite place outside?

6) There are a lot of pictures of that apple chart, can you tell me about the chart? Where is your name?

7) Why do you have a yellow apple?

8) What do you like to do more often in your classroom?

9) If you wanted to sit with a friend where do you go?

10) What is missing in your classroom?

11) If you wanted to be with a teacher where would you go?

12) What is your favourite thing to do?

13) Anything else you want us to know?

14) Is their a place you can do to be alone? 

1) "AM I GOING TO GET IN TROUBLE?"	6)"I HAVE A YELLOW APPLE"	10) "I AM SAD"
2) "IS IT HOME TIME YET?"	CHILD CONFERENCING	11) "THIS IS MY TEACHER... IT'S A MONSTER"
3)"COME SEE MY WORK"	7) "IS MY TEACHER GONE"	12) "I'M BORED"
4) "THE INFANT ROOM IS WHERE  WE GO WHEN WE CRY"	8) "LOOK AT MY SCARED PUMPKIN"	13) "I WAS A BAD BOY TODAY, I AM RED"
5) "WE DON'T GO OUTSIDE"	9) "UNDER THE TABLE"	14) "THE COMPUTER..NO ONE IN THE WORLD CAN SEE US HERE"

What has been confirmed by the children using this tool?

Through our child conferencing, this tool confirmed some prominent themes found within the center. Authority, privacy and identity were most common based on the answers provided by the children. We established that the children felt a strong sense of authority when they were within their childcare setting, with responses like, “Am I going to get in trouble” and “The infant room is where we go when we cry.” The children definitely feel the teachers have a strong authority over their actions and behaviors in the room and are constantly reminded of the power held over them. The children have minimal to no freedom within the classroom and their voices are never heard. While in the classroom, we could felt that the teachers were quite frustrated when the children were playing and talking. They would constantly shut off the lights, close the door, ring the bell and tell them to be quiet because it got too loud.

What new information was given to us?

The information that we had gained during the conferencing, was that the children within the center are not pleased overall with their learning environment. Many of their responses were negative and revolved around being dissatisfied. You could easily see that the children expressed quite a few negative feelings. They were frustrated, anxious, bored and scared. You could see that they didn’t want to be in the classroom, but when they were, they constantly searched for new hiding spots or places that they could “escape” from the authority. They asked multiple times if they were going to get into trouble because they were away from their “work.” Through each one of our visits, we observed that the same children each time had a yellow or red apple, which meant that they were in trouble. It was clear to us that this apple chart was not a success, obviously, but the teachers were not aware of this.

PERSONAL MARKERS: N/A	PERSPECTIVE: N/A	IDENTITY: "I am sad," "come see my work," "look at my scared pumpkin," "I was a bad boy today, I am red," and "I'm bored."
AUTHORITY: "Am I going to get in trouble?" "I have a yellow apple," "This is my teacher .. It's a monster," "we don't go outside," and "the infant room is where we go when we cry."	THEMES	PRIVACY:  "Is it home time yet?,""is my teacher gone," "the computer.. no one in the world can see us there," and "under the table."
TOYS:  N/A	FURNITURE: N/A

This is our legend to represent each theme by a colour.

LEGEND

BLUE = AUTHORITY (6)

GREY = TOYS (3)

FUCHSIA = FURNITURE (4)

RED = PERSPECTIVE (2)

GREEN = PERSONAL MARKERS (4)

PURPLE = IDENTITY (2)

ORANGE = PRIVACY (2)