Final Version May 5 07

Appendix G:
Narratives of Experience
Visit to XXXX Child Care
March 11, 2004
When I enter the classroom, I count seven children tidying up the area in which they were
playing. All are participating in the clean up process. The children then line up outside
the room and travel to another classroom down the corridor. This is where the “meeting
time” will take place. It is 9:35 am. The children are sitting on a carpet area. They are not
in any type of formation but are sitting with their legs mostly crossed looking forward to
the couch directly in front where the two teachers sit (, my research participant and
Erica). Layla asks Erica “did you get a newspaper?” Erica then gets up and returns with a
newspaper. There is an additional supply teacher, Cathy who is the former supervisor at
this centre who sits with me at a table to the left of the meeting area.
Asks whether “anyone has anything they’d like to share.” A child says “I have 70 bucks
at home” Layla asks “how did you get all that money?” The child says “4 20 bucks for
Chinese New Year another 5 for my tooth and 5 for free.” Layla then says “let’s count
that.” She adds up the numbers given by the child out loud and then says “that’s 90
bucks; you better go back and count again.” Another child says “at Chinese New Year I
actually got 100 bucks.” Still another child says “I go to gymnastics.”
The teachers then take control of the conversation and Layla says to Erica “when you
woke up what did you see?” Erica then says, “Fog, it was very, very foggy.” A child says
“I have night vision.” Erica and Layla acknowledge the child and both laugh at this
response but they don’t pay much attention to it as they try to refocus the children. Erica
asks, “How is fog created.” At this point I begin to wonder what is going on as the
interactions between the teachers themselves and between the teachers and the children
seem so adult-like in nature. I’m shocked at this question because the answer is not
335