2.1 Froebelian principles
In Froebelian pedagogy, there are not rigid rules to be followed or content that must be learned; rather, Froebelian principles are key ideas and values that should be considered when working with young children. One of the reasons for this was Froebel’s reluctance to set down in print ideas that may then be misinterpreted, even though Wasmuth, who published a book in 2020 which outlined how Froebelian pedagogy had developed in both Germany and the United States, states that Froebel’s contemporaries would have appreciated a comprehensive setting out of his pedagogy because his ideas around the kindergarten were difficult to understand.
Nevertheless, there are some key texts where Froebel’s ideas have been set out such as ‘Education by development: the second part of the Pedagogics of the kindergarten’ (Froebel, 1899) and ‘Froebel’s chief writings on education’ (1920) which are both stored in the Froebel Archive. As it stands, present-day Froebelian pedagogy is predominantly informed by underpinning principles which are interpreted differently in diverse contexts. A useful theory to consider as you learn about these principles is ‘transitology theory’. Nishida (2022), in a paper where she explores how Froebelian ideas came to be developed in Japan, attributes this theory to Robert Cowen. She describes how Cowen explains that when ideas ‘move’ then they ‘morph’ so that their shape changes (p. 2).
The Froebel Trust is a charity which was established in 2012. It emerged from The Incorporated Froebel Educational Institute which began in 1892. An important part of its role is to ensure Froebel’s thinking is ‘recognised, understood, valued and practised across the early childhood sector for the benefit of young children in the UK and internationally’. As part of this work, they run courses and offer grants for developing both research and practice. Most importantly they promote Froebel’s ideas demonstrating how they are not just interesting from an historical point of view but that they have relevance to practice today. The Trust identifies several key principles that are all relevant to outdoor practice for the youngest children. You can see these principles outlined on the poster below.
See the poster in its full size here [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]
Watch this video where Dr Sacha Powell, Chief executive Officer of The Froebel Trust, as she talks to Nicola about the importance of these principles.
Transcript
SACHA POWELL: Principles are really important. The principles guide everything that we do and everything that Froebel-trained practitioners do. And it's not about having a strict method that everybody does in the same way in the same place.
The idea about starting from principles, of things like starting where a child is rather than where you want them to be, means that that's adaptable to different families or early childhood centres and contexts to schools, different cultural settings.
And so they're very adaptable. And they're also adaptable to whatever curriculum framework somebody might be working with. So we know that Froebelian approaches are used all over the world. There's a very long tradition in Finland, in New Zealand. There is a huge amount of Froebelian practice in Scotland at the moment.
And, of course, all those places have very different curricular approaches and different cultural contexts too. So I think what I'm trying to say is that a principled approach starting with principles is a very flexible way of working. And there's more information about the principles on our website. And those principles apply just as much to a baby who's a month old as to a 7-year-old child in a school context.
The website mentioned by Sacha in the video is the Froebel Trust website.
Next, you will be able to watch Dr Maria Cooper and Shirlene Murphy who you met in Session 1. Here they are discussing what Froebelian principles look like in the bi-cultural context of New Zealand.
Transcript
MARIA COOPER: The idea of Froebelian principles in the New Zealand ECE context is an interesting one because as I've been developing my understandings of Froebel's work over the last few years, I've realised there are so many synergies between Froebelian principles and Te Whariki emphasis on certain things, when we think about Te Whariki emphasis on play as a medium for both learning and teaching, there is a link there. When we think about Te Whariki emphasis on autonomous learning, we see an automatic link there.
Te Whariki is very much about children's connectedness with people, places, and things, including in the outdoors. So there's so many synergies and a lot of our ideas are inspired by Maori philosophy. But we also had Froebelian scholar Helen May, Professor Helen May in formal Te Whariki, the development of Te Whariki. So there's likely to have been some influence from her as well from that lens.
In practice, many of our centres support the idea of infants being outside of the four walls, so to speak, the institution, and just feeling or knowing that they are part of a much broader community. So there is a lot of effort made to get infants and toddlers out on excursions to local parks and, what Shirleen was talking about, to domains that might be nearby and to really appreciate just being in that space with babies.
It could be something as simple as lying a baby on their back under a shady tree and for the baby to witness the waving branches and shifting clouds. There's so much to engage with there without that sense of needing to entertain them with other things.
SHIRLENE MURPHY: I'm just thinking of today. It is a wet, it has been a wet and wild day. And I was just thinking just to further on from what Maria is just talking about is that the importance of that sensory that children holistically they get-- they're able to be outdoors, so all of their senses can be fulfilled.
And so one example today was dressing, putting our wet weather gears on, gumboots and everything, to take them outside. But we could clearly see that the gumboots were restricting this one baby. She didn't want to be in gumboots. She wanted her feet to be in the mud. And so just by us seeing that and allowing that, just the sheer joy of mud between her toes. And it got to the point where it was puddles. It was her face was covered in it. And for that to just unfold outdoors, just right outside our door, this moment of her just being fully fulfilled, I suppose, in that outdoor space.