This groundbreaking new series questions the current dominant discourses surrounding early childhood, and offers instead alternative narratives of an area that is now made up of a multitude of perspectives and debates.
The series examines the possibilities and risks arising from the accelerated development of early childhood services and policies, and illustrates how it has become increasingly steeped in regulation and control. Insightfully, this collection of books shows how early childhood services can in fact contribute to ethical and democratic practices. The authors explore new ideas taken from alternative working practices in both the western and developing world, and from other academic disciplines such as developmental psychology. Current theories and best practice are placed in relation to the major processes of political, social, economic, cultural and technological change occurring in the world today.
By Karin Murris
April 06, 2016
The Posthuman Child combats institutionalised ageist practices in primary, early childhood and teacher education. Grounded in a critical posthumanist perspective on the purpose of education, it provides a genealogy of psychology, sociology and philosophy of childhood in which dominant figurations ...
Edited
By Paola Cagliari, Marina Castagnetti, Claudia Giudici, Carlina Rinaldi, Vea Vecchi, Peter Moss
February 24, 2016
Loris Malaguzzi was one of the most important figures in 20th century early childhood education, achieving world-wide recognition for his educational ideas and his role in the creation of municipal schools for young children in the Italian city of Reggio Emilia, the most successful example ever of ...
By Marg Sellers
July 10, 2013
This book contests a tradition and convention in educational thinking that dichotomises children and curriculum, by developing the notion of re(con)ceiving children in curriculum. By presenting an innovative research project, in which she worked with children to share their understandings of the ...
By Bronwyn Davies
July 25, 2014
Through a series of exquisite encounters with children, and through a lucid opening up of new aspects of poststructuralist theorizing, Bronwyn Davies opens up new ways of thinking about, and intra-acting with, children. This book carefully guides the reader through a wave of thought that turns the...
By Peter Moss
April 23, 2014
Early childhood education and care is a major policy issue for national governments and international organisations. This book contests two stories, both infused by neoliberal thinking, that dominate early childhood policy making today - ‘the story of quality and high returns’ and ‘the story of ...
By Affrica Taylor
April 04, 2013
In this fascinating new book, Affrica Taylor encourages an exciting paradigmatic shift in the ways in which childhood and nature are conceived and pedagogically deployed, and invites readers to critically reassess the naturalist childhood discourses that are rife within popular culture and early ...
Edited
By Peter Moss
December 14, 2012
What should be the relationship between early childhood and compulsory education? What can they learn from one another and by working together? The rapid expansion of early childhood education and care means that most children in affluent countries now have several years at pre-school before ...
By Vea Vecchi
April 14, 2010
This book explores the contribution of and art and creativity to early education, and examines the role of the atelier (an arts workshop in a school) and atelierista (an educator with an arts background) in the pioneering pre-schools of Reggio Emilia. It does so through the unique experience of Vea...
By Hillevi Lenz Taguchi
September 17, 2009
Going Beyond the Theory/Practice Divide in Early Childhood Education focuses on the use of pedagogical documentation as a tool for learning and transformation. Based on innovative research, the author presents new approaches to learning in early childhood education, shifting attention to the force ...
By Liselott Mariett Olsson
April 20, 2009
In contemporary educational contexts young children and learning are tamed, predicted, supervised, controlled and evaluated according to predetermined standards. Contesting such intense governing of the learning child, this book argues that the challenge to practice and research is to find ways of ...
By Brian Edmiston
December 11, 2007
Through compelling examples, Brian Edmiston presents the case for why and how adults should play with young children to create with them a 'workshop for life'. In a chapter on 'mythic play' Edmiston confronts adult discomfort over children's play with pretend weapons, as he encourages adults both ...
By Glenda Mac Naughton
June 16, 2005
The theories and analyses of post-structural thinkers such as Michel Foucault can seem a long way from practice in early childhood services. In recent years, however, many early childhood researchers and practitioners have found this work important and this fascinating book brings together a range ...