1st Edition
Supporting Early Childhood Practice Through Difficult Times Looking Towards a Better Future
Supporting Early Childhood Practice Through Difficult Times encourages early years students and practitioners to take stock of current practices and pedagogies in the light of challenges like the Covid-19 pandemic, ecological concerns, and regulatory pressures.
The contributions from various scholars and practitioners present a range of theoretical concepts as well as innovative practice examples, inviting deep reflection on your own beliefs and attitudes. They examine and envisage different ways of working with and for young children, their families and communities for a better future. Chapters in this timely book include experts from around the globe examining key issues in early childhood education. The first section questions the increasing digitalisation in nurseries and pre-schools and its impact on staff members, parents and children. The second section focuses on workforce development, management systems and the role of parents in policymaking. The third section showcases innovative pedagogical approaches looking beyond widely accepted early learning goals, assessments and curricula to develop inclusive environments that foster all children’s development and learning. Lastly, the fourth section steps back from day-to-day practice and considers what concern for the environment, social justice and posthumanism means for early childhood education and pedagogy.
This book will be a key resource for early childhood education and care practitioners, graduate students, policy makers and researchers facilitating the step from the here-and-now to revised future practice and policy that will enable all children to flourish.
1. Early Childhood Practice in Difficult Times
Ute Ward
Part I: The Impact of Digitalisation
2. The Mixed Blessing of Digital Tools
Ute Ward
3. Big sister' is watching: a feminist critical discourse analysis of texts supporting the use of live stream video feed technology in licensed childcare programs in Ontario and Alberta, Canada
Brooke Richardson and Joanne Lehrer
4. Using the European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators to develop didactic Tools on AI for Early Childhood Settings
Ulrike Stadler-Altmann
5. Narratives of Crisis: raising children in digital times
Naomi Hodgson & Stefan Ramaekers
Part II: Early Childhood Workforce and Management Issues
6. Enhancing the Development of Practitioners and Settings
Ute Ward
7. Professional development of Croation EC teachers in a virtual world - opportunity or obstacle?
Adrijana Višnjić-Jevtić & Antonija Vukašinović
8. Impacts of neoliberal inspired policies on educators’ professional identity in five countries: Visions for a better future
Marg Rogers, Fabio Dovigo, Laura Doan, Khatuna Dolidze and Astrid Mus Rasmussen
9. Fostering practice-based philosophy in early years professionals
Lewis Stockwell and Michael Young
10. The LEYF Model: A sustainable ECEC model that addresses the disadvantage gap
June O'Sullivan
11. Seeking and listening to families in updating Australia's Approved learning frameworks
Fay Hadley, Linda Harrison, Leanne Lavina, Lennie Barblett, Susan Irvine, Francis Bobongie-Harris, and Jennifer Cartmel
Part III: Alternative Pedagogies and Practices
12. Embracing Diversity and Inclusion
Ute Ward
13. The quiddity of inclusion: Knowing what matters in early childhood
Sharon Skehill
14. Increasing inclusivity through embedding art in daily practice
Silvia Blanch-Gelabert & Gemma Paris-Romain
15. Imagination: the missing element in ECE?
Sue Nimmo
16. Education at the crossfire: a human right approach to support children with disabilities in disasters
Mabel Giraldo
17. Children reading to their parents - From Australia to Israel - Implementation and Challenges
Sigal Tish, Sivon Shatil Carmon and Clodie Tal
Part IV: More than education and care: Philosophical Perspectives on Early Childhood Practice
18. The need for different ways of thinking
Ute Ward
19. Learning in and from nature: Supporting Children's Development
Mehmet Mart
20. A Posthuman Perspective: Learning Entanglements Among a Child, Family Members, and the Material World
Sally Brown
21. The Concept of Dialogue: bell hooks, Paulo Freire, and the English Early Years Sector
Poppie Ephgrave
22. Nurturing the spiritual in children - enacting a spiritual pedagogy to develop children's sense of self
Liz Rouse
23. Towards a better future
Ute Ward
Biography
Ute Ward is a former Senior Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire, UK.
