Open Access

Hannah Merkel, Frauke Hildebrandt, Karsten Krauskopf

• Professional vision refers to professionals’ selective perception and interpretation of situation-relevant events based on professional knowledge (Goodwin, 1994). While this concept has been studied extensively in school contexts, little is known about professional vision in early childhood education, particularly in everyday educator–child interactions. This project investigates how educators’ visual attention is distributed during real world educator-child interactions and whether gaze behaviour reflects participation-oriented interactional practices. Embedded in the research project Participatory Interactions in Care and Sleep Situations (PIPS), the study combines eye-tracking data with video-based interaction analysis and questionnaire data. This doctoral project follows a cumulative design with three interrelated studies: (1) a methodological guidance paper identifying eye-tracking parameters relevant to participatory interactional quality in early childhood settings, (2) an empirical study examining correlations betweenProfessional vision refers to professionals’ selective perception and interpretation of situation-relevant events based on professional knowledge (Goodwin, 1994). While this concept has been studied extensively in school contexts, little is known about professional vision in early childhood education, particularly in everyday educator–child interactions. This project investigates how educators’ visual attention is distributed during real world educator-child interactions and whether gaze behaviour reflects participation-oriented interactional practices. Embedded in the research project Participatory Interactions in Care and Sleep Situations (PIPS), the study combines eye-tracking data with video-based interaction analysis and questionnaire data. This doctoral project follows a cumulative design with three interrelated studies: (1) a methodological guidance paper identifying eye-tracking parameters relevant to participatory interactional quality in early childhood settings, (2) an empirical study examining correlations between participatory interaction markers and gaze behaviour during dynamic real-world situations, and (3) an analysis of the relationship between educators’ pedagogical orientations and visual attention patterns. Together, these studies aim to advance the understanding of how visual attention is distributed in highly dynamic early childhood environments and how gaze behaviour relates to interactional practices.…