Early Childhood Education

Ensure children of all backgrounds can thrive with an intercultural approach to early childhood education In a multicultural society such as Canada’s, early childhood educators work with children and families from a diverse mix of ethnicities, religions, languages, abilities, and lifestyles. Diversity enriches the experience of children and educators alike in these environments, but it can also present challenges in supporting each child’s growth and learning. In Introduction to Early Childhood Learning and Care, early learning specialists Carole Massing and Mary Lynne Matheson present an intercultural perspective as a foundation of equitable outcomes in early childhood education, but just what does that look like? An intercultural approach involves the respectful exchange of ideas between people from diverse backgrounds, leading to mutual trust and deeper relationships. Guided by a diverse team of reviewers, this book examines the concepts, approaches, and strategies that every early childhood educator needs to know to provide sensitive, culturally responsive care for children and their families. Topics include: - The theoretical bases for an intercultural approach to early childhood education and care - The factors that impact a child’s physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development - How to create environments that enhance children’s wellbeing and affirm their identity - How to support children’s creativity, literacy, and inquiry skills through an intercultural lens - The skills, responsibilities, and challenges of working as an early childhood educator

Essentials of Early Childhood Education remains one of the most revered texts in the field. The text emphasizes the importance of experience, interactions, and environments to support children in development. This edition highlights up-to-date coverage, statistics, and references to new Canadian studies as well as validates Early Childhood Education as a critical and meaningful vocation. Essentials of Early Childhood Education will provide students with the foundations necessary to study further in their field and achieve success in their field placements and practicum. The book focuses on issues that must be addressed to prepare individuals to work with young children and families in early development stages.

Equity as Praxis in Early Childhood Education and Care aims to map, deconstruct, and engage with different models of equity as they pertain to the early childhood education landscape in Ontario. Drawing on marginalized narratives of gender, race, Indigeneity, dis/ability and inclusion, and migration, immigration, and displacement, the authors discuss how to advance the field and make it more equitable for children, families, early childhood educators, and all other practitioners. This edited collection outlines the current political climate of early childhood education and care in Ontario through a critical analysis of policies and dominant discourses of equity and inclusion. By prompting readers to reflect on and critique their understandings of children, families, communities, and practices in the field, the authors seek to provide counternarratives to Eurocentric developmentalist hegemonies and an alternative strength-based approach to critical and transformative praxis. This vital text encourages rethinking how narratives of equity and inclusion are constructed and what this means for young children and their families in Ontario, as well as throughout Canada. This is an essential resource for students in early childhood education and care, early childhood studies, and education programs. FEATURES: - Includes perspectives from multiple positionalities in the field to provide a critical and interdisciplinary approach - Draws on a reconceptualist lens to present a critique of developmentalist approaches - Encourages readers to engage with the content by practising critical self-examination and considering social factors and forces that inform their own concepts

From a critical perspective, some early childhood educators have proposed that the knowledge base used to ground the field actually serves to support the status quo, reinforces prejudices and stereotypes, and ignores the real lives of children. The purpose of this book is to deconstruct early childhood education, identifying and evaluating the themes and forms of discourse that have dominated the field, leading to the construction of specific theories and forms of practice that privilege particular groups of children and adults and oppress others. An alternative avenue for early childhood education is posited that focuses on social justice and human agency.

What should be the relationship between early childhood and compulsory education? While it's widely assumed that the former should prepare children for the latter, there are alternatives. This book contests the 'readying for school' relationship as neither self-evident nor unproblematic, and explores some alternative relationships.

Early Childhood Education: Becoming a Professional is an inspiring introduction to the world of early childhood education, preparing the teachers of tomorrow to reach their full potential in their schools and communities. Written by a diverse and experienced author team (Kimberly A. Gordon Biddle, Ana Garcia-Nevarez, Wanda J. Roundtree-Henderson, and Alicia Valero-Kerrick), this text engages readers to connect contemporary educational and developmental theory and research to developmentally appropriate practices and applications that are easily implemented in the classroom. In response to today's ever-changing educational environment, the text focuses on both the importance of taking personal and professional responsibility, as well as today's issues in diversity—from supporting children with exceptionalities to supporting children and families in broader cultural contexts.

Encounters with Materials in Early Childhood Education rearticulates understandings of materials—blocks of clay, sheets of paper, brushes and paints—to formulate what happens when we think with materials and apply them to early childhood development and classrooms. The book develops ways of thinking about materials that are more sustainable and insightful than what most children in the Western world experience today through capitalist narratives. Through a series of ethnographic events and engagement with existing ideas of relationality in the visual arts, feminist ethics, science studies, philosophy, and anthropology, Encounters with Materials in Early Childhood Education highlights how materials can be conceptualized as active participants in early childhood education and generators of human insight. A variety of examples show how educators, young children, and researchers have engaged in thinking with materials in early years classrooms and explore what materials are capable of in their encounters with other materials and with children. Please visit the companion website at www.encounterswithmaterials.com for additional features, including interviews with the authors and the teachers featured in the book, videos and photographs of the classroom narratives described in these pages, and an ongoing blog of the authors’ ethnographic notes.

Rethinking Early Childhood Education is alive with the conviction that teaching young children involves values and vision. This anthology collects inspiring stories about social justice teaching with young children. Included here is outstanding writing from childcare teachers, early-grade public school teachers, scholars, and parents.Early childhood is when we develop our core dispositions -- the habits of thinking that shape how we live. This book shows how educators can nurture empathy, an ecological consciousness, curiosity, collaboration, and activism in young children. It invites readers to rethink early childhood education, reminding them that it is inseparable from social justice and ecological education.An outstanding resource for childcare providers, early-grade teachers, as well as teacher education and staff development programs.