Balancing child-centred with teacher-directed approaches to early education: incorporating young children’s perspectives

Child-centred and teacher-directed curricula have long been presented as mutually exclusive approaches to early education. Interestingly, recent research suggests a ‘balance’ of the two yields the best child outcomes, yet how this balance is struck varies considerably across contexts and even studies. In this paper, we use the writings of Russian cultural-historical scholars to examine the orientations of adult and child perspectives. We propose a unifying theoretical model to describe the hypothetical extremities of child-centred and teacher-directed activities as a way that educational leaders may chart children’s activities across this spectrum. Given the moral imperative to provide balance, the model is proposed as a way to approximate it across the child’s day. We also offer two central classroom techniques as pedagogical moves to redress the tension between child-centred and teacher-directed approaches and ensure the morally imperative inclusion of children’s perspectives.