While you were (not) asleep: negotiation of times, routines, and rhythms through the infant’s transition process to early childhood and care

ABSTRACT

Infants coming into early childhood education services is a growing phenomenon that has captured greater interest from researchers. However, moving beyond the focus on maternal separation, the field still needs to advance regarding the notion of transition as a process of contextual intertwining between home and early education services. One of the dimensions of transition relates to the multiple temporal, cultural, and socially circumscribed dimensions that come to establish a new everyday life. Based on a cultural-historical approach, we discuss the transition process of a focal infant. From a thematic selection centered on sleeping routines, we address the relational negotiation against the (a)synchrony of times, routines, and rhythms that materialize in the institution’s present time. Among the different elements, the thematic selection will be focused on sleep routines.

KEYWORDS transition; early childhood education services; infant; time; routines