1st Edition
The Influence of Theorists and Pioneers on Early Childhood Education
The chapters in this book reflect on the major shifts in the views of early childhood thinkers and educators, who have contributed to contemporary theoretical frameworks pertaining to early childhood learning. The book also revisits and critically analyses the influence of developmental theories on early childhood education, starting in the 1890s with the work of G. Stanley Hall that established the close association of early childhood education and child development. Several chapters comprise critical examinations of the fundamental influence of thinkers such as Piaget, Vygotsky, Kohlberg, Adler, Pestalozzi, Froebel, and so on, on early childhood learning. The book also contends that these theoretical conceptions of child development have heavily influenced modern views of early childhood education.
This book is a significant new contribution to early childhood learning, and will be a great resource for academics, researchers, and advanced students of Education, Public Policy, History of Education, Psychology, and Sociology.
The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Early Child Development and Care.
Introduction: The metamorphosis of early childhood theorists and pioneers
Olivia N. Saracho and Roy Evans
Part I: Developmental Theories in Early Childhood Education
1. Theorists and their developmental theories
Olivia N. Saracho and Roy Evans
2. Revisiting Piaget, his contribution to South African early childhood education
Ina Joubert and Giulietta Domenica Harrison
3. Continuing the heritage of Vygotsky as a complexivist: insights from a research project among pre-primary learners in Mauritius
Shameem Oozeerally and Helina Hookoomsing
4. Vygotsky’s contributions to understandings of emotional development through early childhood play
Yeshe Colliver and Nikolay Veraksa
5. Vygotsky’s theory in- play: early childhood education
Larry Smolucha and Francine Smolucha
6. Contemporary principles to lead understandings of children’s learning: synthesizing Vygotsky, Rogoff, Wells and Lindfors
Helen Hedges
7. A review of Kohlberg’s theory and its applicability in the South African context through the lens of early childhood development and violence
Lynne Goldschmidt, Malose Langa, Daleen Alexander, and Hugo Canham
8. The promise and the practice of early childhood educare in the writings of Urie Bronfenbrenner
Jonathan R. H. Tudge, Jessica L. Navarro, Elisa A. Merçon- Vargas, and Ayse Payir
9. The impact of B. F. Skinner’s science of operant learning on early childhood research, theory, treatment, and care
Henry D. Schlinger
10. The psychosocial development theory of Erik Erikson: critical overview
Jacobus G. Maree
11. Bruno Bettelheim: contradictions, controversies and continuities
Philip Garner
12. The contributions of Alfred Adler (1870–1937) to the understanding of early childhood development
Enrique B. Arranz- Freijo and Florencia Barreto- Zarza
Part II: Pioneers and their Curriculum Programs
13. Early childhood education pioneers and their curriculum programs
Olivia N. Saracho and Roy Evans
14. Pestalozzi and pedagogies of love: pathways to educational reform
Maura Sellars and David Imig
15. Froebel’s kindergarten and its movement in Germany and the United States
Yoko Shirakawa and Olivia N. Saracho
16. Friedrich Froebel: a path least trodden
Lynn J. McNair and Sacha Powell
17. Friedrich Froebel: interpolation, extrapolation
Mike Watts
18. Montessori as an alternative early childhood education
Angeline S. Lillard
19. Math achievement outcomes associated with Montessori education
Abha Basargekar and Angeline S. Lillard
20. A study on the effect of Montessori Education on self- regulation skills in preschoolers
Aybüke Yurteri Tiryaki, Ezgi Findik, Saliha Çetin Sultanoğlu, Esra Beker, Müdriye Yildiz Biçakçi, Neriman Aral, and Ece Özdoğan Özbal
21. How do children build knowledge in early childhood education? Susan Isaacs, Young Children Are Researchers and what happens next
Jane Murray
22. Sustaining curiosity: Reggio-Emilia inspired learning
Isabela García Senent, Kendra Kelley, and Mona M. Abo- Zena
23. How teachers, peers, and classroom materials support children’s inquiry in a Reggio Emilia- inspired preschool
Lauren Westerberg and Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler
24. Mikhail Bakhtin: a two- faced encounter with child becoming(s) through dialogue
E. Jayne White
25. Waldorf inspired hyper- imaginative learning trajectories: developing new media literacies in elementary education
Xanthippi Tsortanidou, Thanasis Daradoumis, and Elena Barberá
26. Seeing infants differently: Magda Gerber’s contributions to the early care and education field and their continuing relevance
Ruth Anne Hammond
27. A potpourri of philosophical and child development research- based perspectives as a way forward for early childhood curricula and pedagogy: reconcilable schism or irreconcilable severance?
Lisha O’Sullivan and Emer Ring
28. Early childhood theories, ideals and social- political movements, an oral history study of pioneers in the second half of the twentieth century
Elly Singer and Sandie Wong
Biography
Roy Evans is Editor-in-Chief of Early Child Development and Care, a position he has held since 1977. He is Visiting Professor of Early Childhood Education in the School of Education at the University of Northampton. Prior to his retirement from full-time work, Roy was Professor of Education and Head of the School of Education at Brunel University, London. Since the late 1960s, he has authored numerous books in the field of early childhood and special education, published regularly in various scholarly journals, and lectured internationally on the social integration of young children and features of the environment which represent risks to children's normal development. In 1999, the Royal Society of Arts recognized Roy for his scholarly research and publications; therefore, the Society elected him to be a fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA), which is awarded to scholars in the world that the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) identifies and determines to have made important achievements to social progress and development. He is also Chief International Editor of the International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, a journal that publishes research on adolescents and youth across international contexts.
Olivia N. Saracho is Professor of Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Maryland. She has conducted many studies in the area of play focusing on areas such as literacy, cognitive style, and many others. She is widely published in the field of early childhood education. She is editor of the Handbook of Research on the Education of Young Children, 4th ed. (2021, Routledge) and the series on Contemporary Perspectives in Early Childhood Education. She is the author of An Integrated Play-Based Curriculum for Young Children (2021).
