Recent Perspectives On Early Childhood Education In Canada

Early childhood education is critical for preparing children for success in formal school settings, and as such, is a major concern throughout the world. This volume brings together ground-breaking research in this area to help practitioners, students, policy makers, curriculum designers, and intervention program developers understand the latest ideas and advances in the field. Recent Perspectives of Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada centres on three key themes. The first provides a survey of historical, social policy, economic, and provincial regulations and policies related to early childhood education and care. The second focuses on issues related to children's learning, curriculum, and teachers. The final theme addresses recent developments in government involvement in early childhood education and care that are unique to Canada. The contributors to this volume demonstrate the pressing need that exists to further public discussion on early childhood education to help policymakers shape better decisions for Canadian families.

Early childhood education is critical for preparing children for success in formal school settings, and as such, is a major concern throughout the world. This volume brings together ground-breaking research in this area to help practitioners, students, policy makers, curriculum designers, and intervention program developers understand the latest ideas and advances in the field. Recent Perspectives of Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada centres on three key themes. The first provides a survey of historical, social policy, economic, and provincial regulations and policies related to early childhood education and care. The second focuses on issues related to children’s learning, curriculum, and teachers. The final theme addresses recent developments in government involvement in early childhood education and care that are unique to Canada. The contributors to this volume demonstrate the pressing need that exists to further public discussion on early childhood education to help policymakers shape better decisions for Canadian families.

The Handbook of International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education provides a groundbreaking compilation of research from an interdisciplinary group of distinguished experts in early childhood education (ECE), child development, cultural and cross-cultural research in the psychological sciences, etc. The chapters provide current overviews of ECE in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, Africa, Europe, the US, and Canada, and convey how ECE is multi-sectorial, multi-cultural, and multi-disciplinary, undergirded by such disciplines as neuroscience, psychological anthropology, cross-cultural human development, childhood studies, and political science.

The first volume in this Early Childhood Education and Care in the 21st Century: International Teaching, Family and Policy Perspectives miniseries provides a snapshot of early childhood education and care from 19 different countries around the world. The intention is to provide a description for the policy and provision for young children and their families in each of the unique contemporary contexts. The selection of countries includes every continent in the world to provide variety across cultures, socio-economic status, location, population and other unique factors. Some chapters also share the development and history of early childhood in their country, including economic and political transitions that lead to changes in early childhood provision and policy. The book provides essential takeaways for early childhood educators, researchers, early childhood organisations, policy makers and those interested to know more about early childhood education within an international perspective.

Introduction to Early Childhood Education: A Canadian Perspective introduces students new to ECE to the field. The learner is introduced to children, their families, childcare settings and Canadian philosophical approaches through the use of photographs and real-world scenarios. Great care has been taken to accurately represent the diversity of Canadian culture. The photographs are inclusive of most cultures in Canada both visible and non-visible and from urban, rural, and isolated locations throughout the country. Readers of this text will work towards developing the relevant skills needed to work with children. In order to make skill development easier to understand and apply, these skills have been presented in the context of children, their families, children's environments and legislative requirements.

This ground-breaking collected volume features multiple voices from the field that, together, offer an extensive and balanced examination of the contemporary, historical, and philosophical influences that shape early childhood education and care in Canada today. Showcasing uniquely Canadian narratives, perspectives, and histories, the text provides a superb foundation in the key topics and approaches of the field, including Indigenous ways of knowing, holistic education, play, the nature of childhood, developmental approaches, and the impact of educational philosophers and theorists such as Rousseau and Dewey. The authors discuss current and reimagined themes such as children’s rights, diversity and inclusion, multimodality, ecology, and Indigenous education in the context of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Featuring chapters by academics from across Canada that explore the field’s history and future, as well as guiding questions to support reader engagement, Early Years Education and Care in Canada is a fundamental resource for students, academics, practitioners, and policymakers in early childhood education and care.

Child development “laboratory schools are dedicated to research-based instruction and furthering innovation in education. Many of these schools are connected to universities, where students are able to benefit from university resources and best practices” (Khan, 2014). They have been in existence on university campuses for centuries in the United States. The earliest colonial colleges (e.g., Harvard, Yale, William and Mary, University of Pennsylvania) administered Latin schools or departments to prepare students for college (Good & Teller, 1973). Rutgers Preparatory School was founded in 1768 and was linked to the university until the 1950s (Sperduto, 1967). During the course of time, the laboratory schools have changed to meet the needs of the teaching professionals and have frequently guided the instructional methods to improve the science and art of teaching [International Association of Laboratory Schools (IALS), 2018]. They have also changed throughout the years from part-day, part-time programs (McBride, 1996, Myers & Palmer, 2017) to full-day child care, some of which is inclusive of care offered through student service funds (Keyes, 1984; Shirah, 1988). Throughout the previous century, college and university institutions have established child development laboratory schools. In the early 1900s, they were initially considered to be sites for the recent discipline of child study but their purposes have progressed gradually. They also have assumed a fundamental function in promoting teaching, research, and service (such as outreach/engagement practice) in child development and early childhood education. However, a lot of them had to struggle for their survival when economic periods turned out to be problematic. Several extended operating programs were discontinued (Barbour & McBride, 2017). In 1894 John Dewey founded the University of Chicago Laboratory School. His laboratory school is unquestionably the most well-known of experimental schools. It was used to research, develop, and confirm innovative theories and principles of child development and education. Later at the beginning of the early 1900s, exemplary schools were developed as important centers for the preparation of teachers. Dewey’s laboratory school and the preparation of interns in a hospital were used as a model for laboratory schools to focus on methodical research, dual faculty university appointments, and the preparation of preservice teachers. During the initial half of the 20th century, laboratory schools increased in colleges and universities, especially between 1920 and 1940. University-based child development laboratory programs assumed a critical responsibility in contributing to the knowledge base on child development and early childhood education as well as the professional development of early childhood educators. This concept of the child development laboratory schools has heavily influenced modern views. Researchers and educators need to understand the current sources based on theoretical frameworks that contribute to the purposes of the child development laboratory schools. The contents of the volume reflect the major shifts in the views of early childhood researchers and educators in relation to the research on child development laboratory schools, the role of child development laboratory programs in early childhood education, and their relationship to theory, research, and practice. The chapters in this special volume reviews and critically analyzes the literature on several aspects of the child development laboratory schools. This volume can be a valuable tool to researchers who are conducting studies in the child development laboratory schools and practitioners who are working directly or indirectly in these schools. It focuses on important contemporary issues on child development laboratory schools in early childhood education (ages 0 to 8) to provide the information necessary to make judgments about these issues. It also motivates and guides researchers to explore gaps in the child development laboratory schools’ literature.

The second volume in this Early Childhood Education in the 21st Century: International Teaching, Family and Policy Perspectives miniseries focuses on teacher and family perspectives of early childhood education and care from 19 different countries around the world. The aim of this volume is to articulate the key components of teacher education and family practices that impact young children’s education and care. Each country featured in this volume presents its own unique perspective in relation to the cultural and societal constraints around teacher training and/or family practices and the thinking around those practices that are important for early childhood development. Offering a unique insight into how teachers and families work together in different countries, the book is essential reading for early childhood educators, researchers, early childhood organisations, policy makers and those interested to know more about early childhood within an international perspective.