Being, Becoming, and Belonging: How Toddlers New to Childcare Become Members of a Classroom Community

• In Event: Crown Plaza Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Social and Emotional Teaching and Learning

Abstract

This multi-case study followed five toddlers as they transitioned into their first year of child care. Framed by the lens of third space and the construct of borderlands, we focused on children’s co-navigation, with their teachers and peers, in establishing a sense of belonging and community in their classroom. We explored toddlers’ ways of being oneself within the group while becoming a member of the community, negotiating curricular, teachers’, peers’, and parents’ expectations. Although discontinuities in experience led to tensions in the transitional space, these ruptures also created opportunities to rediscover self and shift group dynamics in the process of being and becoming. Pathways toward belonging varied for individual children, inviting distinct levels of support from teachers and families.

Authors

• Susan L. Recchia, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Seung Eun McDevitt, St. John's University

• Aura Yarenis Perez, Teachers College, Columbia University