Throughout the publication activity theory is used to analyse pre-school children’s participation in science learning experiences. This allows for children’s participation in social relations to be seen in relation to carefully chosen episodes. I found these examples with the dialogues between the teachers and children, and between the children themselves, very useful in describing the events going on in the classroom. The challenges faced by teachers in the classrooms between trying to develop a planned curriculum and following the child’s lead will strike a chord with many in the teaching profession.

While the first two chapters exemplify how a child’s potential to do and what he/she does is shaped by the material and social world, in chapter three the authors analyse the higher cognitive function of ‘turn taking.’ By giving examples from actual classroom situations, the authors show how children can indeed participate in curriculum design, making the science curriculum a recursive and meaningful event.

In the second part of the book, I enjoyed reading about the Brazilian pedagogical project, based on a study situated in a kindergarten school in Brazil. The authors look at children’s learning by means of three dialectical categories of different aspects of participation:

1. Agency/passivity
2. Margin/centre
3. Darkness/light

The authors use the margin/centre as a dialectic concept to problematise the notion of participation, and show how children’s engagement in tasks can be very different from their teacher’s plans. This dialectic is conveyed very clearly through the example of a child, Bruno, who was in the ‘margin’ with respect to the intended task structure and who showed agency within a structured environment recreating science by connecting with his own perceptions and experiences. The authors assert that opportunities to teach, learn and explore arise from the contradictions that emerge at the heart of participation and that the core of democratic and liberating education is abandoning conformity and fostering participation. I found this idea very empowering and positive for the children and the teachers.

The darkness/light project investigates learning as an exploration and grouping around into the unknown and the process of learning as creating a clearing. Through the darkness/light dialectic, the authors illustrate how both teachers and the children are in the light and dark and both are in situations of teaching and learning simultaneously. I could relate to this dialectic as it is similar to the Māori concept ‘ako’ where the learner shifts roles to become the teacher and the teacher becomes the learner.

Later in the book I appreciated the description of teachers who at first were keen on transferring knowledge and yet when faced with resistance from children, opened to the process of dialogue. The authors describe a ‘living’ curriculum kept ‘alive’ in the classroom. This is wonderfully captured in chapter seven where the children realised that they were being ‘listened to’ and realised their own power to ‘act’.

The best part of the book for me was the work with the in – service and pre- service teachers in preparing them for teaching science with the children. While Michael and Maria work through the theories, the implementation of the theory was reported on by Katherina working with in-service teachers and pre service teachers at the University of Ioannina. The teachers acting in the role of children doing a LIGHT project, faced a challenge to design an investigation and solve a problem. Out of the process it was refreshing to learn how the participant pre- service teachers developed new understandings, not only about how children learn but about light and teaching the topic.

I gained a lot from this book. As a teacher, I could connect to the situations where the teachers had planned experiences for the children and the children’s engagement in tasks being different to their teacher’s plans. I could feel a combination of challenge, reflection and liberty when the teachers slowly abandoned conformity to accommodate and foster the participation of children in their own ways.

I would recommend this study to both teachers in practice and also student teachers. I liked the way in which the lessons related the cultural historical perspective on learning by drawing on examples from home situations and classrooms. The use of photos also aided in bringing the scenarios alive. I found that I needed to return to certain chapters to learn more about these underlying concepts. A sure sign that there is plenty to gather from this text.

References

• Roth, W. M., Goulart, M. I. M. & Plakitsi, K. (2013). Science education during early childhood. New York: Springer.