Recognizing the various ecological contexts that support children’s development while amplifying voices from across the globe, this book challenges narrow interpretations of quality and best practice. Each author offers a unique perspective on issues germane to the field of early childhood education: perceptions of children, curriculum, teacher education, and play-based learning. An innovative, timely, and much-needed contribution, this book represents an inclusive collection of theoretical and cultural knowledge, as well as research. Such a diverse multicentric lens opens new intellectual pathways for authentic, reciprocal knowledge exchange, while ensuring that a reimagining of early childhood education remains at the core of our teaching practice, scholarship, and activism. This book invites everyone to imagine, to dare to believe, to hope, and to act—in the interests of children, in the interests of communities and families, and in the moral precepts of equity, inclusion and justice.

First published in 1968, The Irony of Early School Reform quickly became essential reading for anyone interested in American education. One of the first books to survey the relationship between public educational systems and the rise of urbanization and industrialization,Irony was instrumental in mapping out the origins of school reform and locating the source of educational inequalities and bureaucracies in patterns established in the nineteenth century. This new and enhanced version of the classic text is now available for the legions of people who have asked for it. It includes an update by the author along with the same cohesive text and criticism contained in the original. Readers will appreciate that this edition: brings back into print a book that holds an important place in the field of educational history and in the modern literature of educational reform; assesses the impact of the original publication in light of writing about American history and education since its original publication and explains its continuing significance; shatters warm and comforting myths about the origins of public education; and shows how some of the most problematic features of public education have their origins in nineteenth century styles of educational reform.

Caribbean Childhoods: From Research to Action is an annual publication produced by the Children s Issues Coalition at the University of the West Indies, Mona. The series seeks to provide an avenue for the dissemination of research and experiences on children s health, development, behaviour and education, and to provide a forum for the discussion of these issues.

This volume addresses two major areas of inquiry in the field of early childhood education and care. The first section of the book includes scholarly reviews on early childhood education and care and its conceptual bases. Section two presents the first in a series on reconceptualizing play.

"I think a real strength of the book is the use of the case studies to ground the points made and to offer in-depth insights into practice." Jackie Marsh, University of Sheffield, UK This exciting book considers the nature of young children's lives and how this can, and should, inform early childhood education in practical ways. It examines: What is it like for young children to learn in the 21st century? How can we link this to new and innovative ways of providing relevant and engaging learning contexts for young children? What it means to be multiliterate in the 21st century The book explores how learning and engagement with ideas can be extended through the use of new technologies, describing how information and communications technologies enable young people to extend the boundaries of their learning and social interactions. These experiences have important implications for formal learning environments and the nature of the curriculum, including bold new approaches to teaching and learning which offer opportunities for children to investigate in new ways. This book provides examples of the ways in which early childhood teachers have extended opportunities for new types of learning for children by creating contexts in which they are able to explore and represent their ideas and thinking in multimodal formats using new technologies. This book represents a research-based discussion for rethinking learning in the 21st century and includes various case studies and scenarios to enable students and practising teachers to try out new ideas. Finally, it considers new ways of thinking about children's learning by creating a multiliteracies portrait, pedagogies and pathways profile that enables teachers to build on their strengths to plan for effective learning outcomes. Rethinking Learning in Early Childhood Education is key reading for students on Early Years courses or Primary Education pre-service teacher education programmes.

Recently, a new understanding of creative thought and creative performance has surfaced. It has also attracted the attention of early childhood professional organizations and researchers. Professional organizations have included it in their publications and conferences. While current creativity researchers have initiated a far more sophisticated understanding of young children’s creative thinking, ways to assess creativity, strategies to promote creativity, and research methodologies. The purpose of this volume is to present a wide range of different theories and areas in the study of creativity to help researchers and theorists work toward the development of different perspectives on creativity with young children. It focuses on critical analyses and reviews of the literature on topics related to creativity research, development, theories, and practices. It will serve as a reference for early childhood education researchers, scholars, academics, general educators, teacher educators, teachers, graduate students, and scientists to stimulate further “dialogue” on ways to enhance creativity. The chapters are of high quality and provide scholarly analyses of research studies that capture the full range of approaches to the study of creativity --- behavioral, clinical, cognitive, cross-cultural, developmental, educational, genetic, organizational, psychoanalytic, psychometric, and social. Interdisciplinary research is also included, as is research within specific domains such as art and science, as well as on critical issues (e.g., aesthetics, genius, imagery, imagination, insight, intuition, metaphor, play, problem finding and solving). Thus, it offers critical analyses on reviews of research in a form that are useful to early childhood researchers, scholars, educators, and graduate students. It also places the current research in its historical context. The volume is also of interest to the general readers who are interested in the young children’s creativity. The chapters are authored by established scholars in the field of young children’s creativity.

By regarding children as actors and conducting empirical research on children’s agency, Childhood Studies have gained significant influence on a wide range of different academic disciplines. This has made agency one of the key concepts of Childhood Studies, with articles on the subject featured in handbooks and encyclopaedias. Reconceptualising Agency and Childhood is the first collection devoted to the central concept of agency in Childhood Studies. With contributions from experts in the field, the chapters cover theoretical, practical, historical, transnational and institutional dimensions of agency, rekindling discussion and introducing fundamental and contemporary sociological perspectives to the field of research. Particular attention is paid to connecting agency in the social sciences with Childhood Studies, considering both the theoretical foundations and the practice of research into agency. Empirical case studies are also explored, which focus upon child protection, schools and childcare at a variety of institutions worldwide. This book is an essential reference for students and scholars of Childhood Studies, and is also relevant to Sociology, Social Work, Education, Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) and Geography. Chapter 6 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.