Reconceptualizing The Early Childhood Curriculum

The field of early childhood education has been heavily influenced by cognitive psychology and child development theory. Reconceptualizing the Early Childhood Curriculum: Beginning the Dialogue draws upon alternative modes of thinking, such as critical and feminist theory, which have been extensively discussed in curriculum studies but have rarely been applied to early childhood education. Editors Shirley A. Kessler and Beth Blue Swadener, along with early childhood theorists and practitioners, pay special attention to issues of gender, race, and ethnicity as reflected in these theories.

Inspired by the idea of documentation as a valuable tool for making learning visible, pedagogical narration offers an opportunity to move beyond checklists and quick answers to a more complex understanding of how children learn, and how teachers might facilitate and support that learning in innovative ways. The authors use stories they collected during a collaborative study to offer a range of possibilities for alternative childhood pedagogies. Cutting edge, yet practical; detailed in its analysis, yet inspiring, this book is a boon to the field of early childhood and primary education studies.

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.

Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Care and Education is a foundational text, which presents contemporary theories and debates about early education and child care in many nations. Audiences include students in graduate courses focused on early childhood and primary education, critical cultural studies of childhood, critical curriculum studies and critical theories.

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. Zoyah Kinkead-Clark is Senior Lecturer and coordinator of early childhood programmes at The University of the West Indies, Jamaica. As a researcher, she is particularly interested in understanding how young children are shaped by their ecological experiences within the home and wider community with the view to explore how educators can build on these in early years settings. Kerry-Ann Escayg is an Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, USA. Dr. Escayg's research interests are children and race, anti-racism in early childhood education, racial socialization, and qualitative research with children.

Found in Translation: Connecting Reconceptualist Thinking with Early Childhood Education Practices highlights the relationships between reconceptualist theory and classroom practice. Each chapter in this edited collection considers a contemporary issue and explores its potential to disrupt the status quo and be meaningful in the lives of young children. The book pairs reconceptualist academics and practitioners to discuss how theories can be relevant in everyday educational contexts, working with children who are from a wide range of cultural, ethnic, gender, language, and social orientations to enable previously unimagined ways of being, thinking, and doing in contemporary times.

This second edition of Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education and Care is a foundational text that presents contemporary theories, debates, and political concerns regarding early education and child care around the globe.

How do we understand what curriculum 'is' and 'does' for both learners and teachers? Using actual field-based vignettes, this book introduces teachable moment-oriented, emergent-oriented, and negotiation-oriented curricula practices, and explores how, while the three curricula notions are distinctively different from one another, they are simultaneously interconnected. Teachable Moments is a valuable resource for teachers at all levels. In addition, this is a book for senior undergraduate- and graduate-level early childhood curriculum courses, as well as graduate students and faculty who are interested in studying contemporary postmodern curricula discourses.