Recent developments in early childhood education in the UK and other parts of Europe have emphasised the importance of dialogue between adults and children. In the UK, the EPPE project paid particular attention to the role of extended child-centred conversations ('sustained shared thinking' - Sylva et al. 2003) as an important element or indicator of high quality in the practice of successful early years settings. On the political front, inspired by the practice of the Reggio Emilia pre-schools among others, Dahlberg and Moss (2005) and Rinaldi (2005) advocate a 'listening pedagogy' which pays attention to the concerns and constructs which young children have, rather than imposing institutionally focused goals. How do these twenty-first century insights reflect and relate to the work of Vygotsky (1978) in identifying the ways in which knowledge is developed in young children through dialogue? And how do young teachers incorporate these ideas in a developing teacher identity or 'professionality' (Moriarty 2000)? In this paper I analyse the reported experience of two cohorts of undergraduate teacher trainees in engaging children in pre-school settings in 'sustained shared thinking'. This is done using the students' subsequent reflection on the events, using a writing frame. I relate outcomes to issues of legitimate peripheral participation in communities of learning and communities of practice (Lave and Wenger 1991) and discuss the implications for teacher development.
