Open Access

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 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.

Die weltweite Digitalisierung der Gesellschaften hat auch für das Leben junger Menschen weitreichende Folgen. Sie werden als Konsument:innen und Nutzer:innen digitaler Technologien immer früher in ökonomische Prozesse eingebunden und scheinbar früher ‚erwachsen‘, als es das westliche Kindheitsmodell vorsieht. Auf den Online-Plattformen, in der Welt der Videospiele und im Influencer-Marketing vermischen sich Spiel, Freizeit, Arbeit und Business auf neue Weise und werfen die Frage auf, ob neue Formen von Arbeit entstehen, die im bisherigen Diskurs über Kinderarbeit nicht bedacht wurden. Der Beitrag vermittelt einen Einblick in die vielfältigen und bisher wenig untersuchten digitalen Handlungsfelder junger Menschen und lotet die darin enthaltenen Widersprüche zwischen wirtschaftlicher Ausbeutung und sozialer Emanzipation aus.

Children’s participation in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is widely recognised as a right. Yet in everyday practice it is shaped by power relations, routines and the material-temporal organisation of settings. This article examines how children’s agency, the capacity to act, negotiate and influence within social and institutional contexts, is enacted, supported or constrained in daily interactions between educators and children. Drawing on ethnographic research in three German ECEC centres implementing the Kita-Beirat (ECEC Council), the study combines participant observation, group interviews and child-led methods inspired by the Mosaic Approach. The analysis shows how interaction quality emerges through three interrelated dimensions: power dynamics, relationships and space–time, which together shape children’s possibilities for agency. These are examined through an integrated theoretical framework that brings together relational agency, Foucauldian understandings of power and socio-material perspectives on space–time. The findings show that while formal participatory structures can open spaces for children’s influence, agency is primarily realised through high-quality, participatory interactions, marked by shared attention, reciprocity and the co-construction of meaning between children and educators. Supporting agency thus requires not only procedural mechanisms for participation but also relational and reflective pedagogies that make power visible, nurture children’s contributions and open dialogue as a shared practice. The article concludes by arguing for a view of participation as lived, negotiated and ethically grounded in the co-production of meaning and practice.