Helen Hedges
Biographic Data
| ID | 939241 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Helen Hedges |
| GIVEN NAMES | Helen |
| FAMILY NAME | Hedges |
| SIGNATURE | HEDGES H |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Auckland |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2436-9307 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Teachers’ perceptions and practices of iPads for visual arts learning in early childhood education
This paper contributes to the ongoing debate about information and communications technologies integration in early childhood education, specifically its role in promoting visual arts education. We explored the use of iPads to support young children’s visual arts learning. A qualitative case study approach used observations, interviews, and children’s assessments to obtain data. Results showed that teachers held positive perceptions of iPads as t…
Storybook reading: Literacy and teacher knowledge in early childhood education
Language and literacy are prioritised across education as tools for thinking with texts, and cultural tools to access participation in society, culture and learning. Teacher knowledge about ways to promote language and literacy are therefore critical. How might this intention play out in early childhood education, where longstanding beliefs about play and child-centred education have dominated Western provision? This paper explores teacher knowle…
Toddlers as active, competent story weavers: Lexie’s story
Communication and literacy development of young children is shaped by the nature of social and cultural relationships in everyday situations. Few studies, however, have explored early story experiences encountered by infants and toddlers in naturalistic settings. We argue that personal stories about everyday lived experiences are a vital context for considering how toddlers develop communicative competencies as they participate in these stories w…
A critical realist analysis of kindergarten teachers' professional identity in Chinese policy
Chinese policymakers expect kindergarten teachers to fulfil multiple roles. • These expected roles involve caring, pedagogy, partnership, and learning in the empirical domain. • These roles are expected to actualise in different social interactions in the actual domain. • Different mechanisms in the real domain underlie those expected roles in social interactions. Internationally, government-produced policies, such as professional standards for t…
The place of interests, agency and imagination in funds of identity theory
Funds of identity is a recent entrant to the field of identity theories. Located within sociocultural theory, the concept developed from the notion of funds of knowledge to consider all life experiences that collectively shape identity development. It draws attention to the relationships, settings, experiences, and cultural tools and symbols that are personally meaningful to people, and ways these mediate engagement with identity development. I m…
What counts and matters in early childhood: Narratives of interests and outcomes
Evidence of outcomes of the early years is highly dependent on what is considered as an outcome, the curriculum and relationships children experience, and the research designs and methods used to ascertain the value of early childhood education. This article reports from an original study in New Zealand that used narrative inquiry to interview young adults about their interests as children, ways these interests were stimulated and responded to, a…
Conceptualising and researching interest/s as a learning phenomenon in contexts representing the fullness of human life
The “fullness of life”: Learner interests and educational experiences
Modes of play in early childhood curricular documents in Brazil, New Zealand and Ontario
Early childhood policies internationally have been informed by evidence that participation in early childhood education makes a positive difference to children’s learning and development. Attempts to understand the purposes and value of play within early childhood policy frameworks have produced various curricular documents across international contexts. This paper employs text analysis linked to Wood’s [2014. The play-pedagogy interface in conte…
Young children’s ‘working theories’: Building and connecting understandings
Young children are keenly motivated to inquire into and make meaning about their worlds. This article discusses working theories, one of two indicative learning outcomes of the New Zealand early childhood curriculum, Te Whāriki. Working theories occur as children attempt to find connections between their experiences and understandings to make sense of their worlds. The article proffers several sociocultural theoretical bases for understanding and…
Vygotsky's phases of everyday concept development and the notion of children's “working theories”
Modes of play in early childhood curricular documents in Brazil, New Zealand and Ontario
Early childhood policies internationally have been informed by evidence that participation in early childhood education makes a positive difference to children’s learning and development. Attempts to understand the purposes and value of play within early childhood policy frameworks have produced various curricular documents across international contexts. This paper employs text analysis linked to Wood’s [2014. The play-pedagogy interface in conte…
Young children’s ‘working theories’: Building and connecting understandings
Young children are keenly motivated to inquire into and make meaning about their worlds. This article discusses working theories, one of two indicative learning outcomes of the New Zealand early childhood curriculum, Te Whāriki. Working theories occur as children attempt to find connections between their experiences and understandings to make sense of their worlds. The article proffers several sociocultural theoretical bases for understanding and…
Vygotsky's phases of everyday concept development and the notion of children's “working theories”
Young children’s ‘working theories’: Building and connecting understandings
Young children are keenly motivated to inquire into and make meaning about their worlds. This article discusses working theories, one of two indicative learning outcomes of the New Zealand early childhood curriculum, Te Whāriki. Working theories occur as children attempt to find connections between their experiences and understandings to make sense of their worlds. The article proffers several sociocultural theoretical bases for understanding and…
Modes of play in early childhood curricular documents in Brazil, New Zealand and Ontario
Early childhood policies internationally have been informed by evidence that participation in early childhood education makes a positive difference to children’s learning and development. Attempts to understand the purposes and value of play within early childhood policy frameworks have produced various curricular documents across international contexts. This paper employs text analysis linked to Wood’s [2014. The play-pedagogy interface in conte…
Conceptualising and researching interest/s as a learning phenomenon in contexts representing the fullness of human life
The “fullness of life”: Learner interests and educational experiences
What counts and matters in early childhood: Narratives of interests and outcomes
Evidence of outcomes of the early years is highly dependent on what is considered as an outcome, the curriculum and relationships children experience, and the research designs and methods used to ascertain the value of early childhood education. This article reports from an original study in New Zealand that used narrative inquiry to interview young adults about their interests as children, ways these interests were stimulated and responded to, a…
The place of interests, agency and imagination in funds of identity theory
Funds of identity is a recent entrant to the field of identity theories. Located within sociocultural theory, the concept developed from the notion of funds of knowledge to consider all life experiences that collectively shape identity development. It draws attention to the relationships, settings, experiences, and cultural tools and symbols that are personally meaningful to people, and ways these mediate engagement with identity development. I m…
Toddlers as active, competent story weavers: Lexie’s story
Communication and literacy development of young children is shaped by the nature of social and cultural relationships in everyday situations. Few studies, however, have explored early story experiences encountered by infants and toddlers in naturalistic settings. We argue that personal stories about everyday lived experiences are a vital context for considering how toddlers develop communicative competencies as they participate in these stories w…
A critical realist analysis of kindergarten teachers' professional identity in Chinese policy
Chinese policymakers expect kindergarten teachers to fulfil multiple roles. • These expected roles involve caring, pedagogy, partnership, and learning in the empirical domain. • These roles are expected to actualise in different social interactions in the actual domain. • Different mechanisms in the real domain underlie those expected roles in social interactions. Internationally, government-produced policies, such as professional standards for t…
Teachers’ perceptions and practices of iPads for visual arts learning in early childhood education
This paper contributes to the ongoing debate about information and communications technologies integration in early childhood education, specifically its role in promoting visual arts education. We explored the use of iPads to support young children’s visual arts learning. A qualitative case study approach used observations, interviews, and children’s assessments to obtain data. Results showed that teachers held positive perceptions of iPads as t…
Storybook reading: Literacy and teacher knowledge in early childhood education
Language and literacy are prioritised across education as tools for thinking with texts, and cultural tools to access participation in society, culture and learning. Teacher knowledge about ways to promote language and literacy are therefore critical. How might this intention play out in early childhood education, where longstanding beliefs about play and child-centred education have dominated Western provision? This paper explores teacher knowle…
Psychology (11 works) · Pedagogy (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Developmental psychology (7 works) · Early childhood (7 works) · Early childhood education (7 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (7 works) · Curriculum (5 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · Innovative Education and Learning Practices (4 works)