From the Adaptation Period to the Reception Time. A Collaborative Reflection on Early Childhood Education

Abstract

This research has analysed the process of collaborative reflection carried out by the educators of the Municipal Network of Early Childhood´s Schools of Vitoria-Gasteiz to define the key aspects of the adaptation period in their Educational Project, and their way of understanding it. An action-research has been carried out in four phases. This time, the third phase is presented, reflecting on what is currently being done during the adaptation period and how language and modes of action should be transformed in the future. In the study, 115 early childhood education teachers, 12 researchers and 6 technicians have participated in 8 working groups to reconstruct knowledge through different strategies. The conclusions show that the reception time, as opposed to the adaptation period, implies accepting each girl and boy with what they affectively bring to school, so that new affective ties are created that give them security, instead of forcing them to adapt to a rigid structure that was pre-set in advance.