eBook downloads, eBook resources & eBook authors
Taking as its starting point that young children learn and develop in a network of relationships, this book emphasises that each relationship has its own specific features, functions and learning/teaching affordances (Thompson, 2005).
Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.
This accessible text encourages readers to understand and confidently engage with distinctive early years pedagogy. It shows how pedagogy not only underpins the early years curriculum but is also inherent in the role of the adult and the experiences that are offered to young children. The book explains what the differing early years pedagogies are, why they are encouraged, and the knowledge, skills, and practice that are required to work with them. Emphasising that what works in one situation may not in another and a wider pedagogical knowledge is essential to ensure quality outcomes for children, it considers key topics such as: the role of the pedagogue and developing your own style promoting a lifelong love of learning in children under your care sensitivity and inclusion for all children’s cultures and communities promoting the rights of every child under your care. Incorporating reflection points and research tasks to support independent learning, this is essential reading for students on Early Childhood Studies courses and Early Years Foundation Degrees as well as early years practitioners.
This book brings together researchers from a variety of national contexts to examine and explore the conceptualisation, reconceptualisation and translation of children’s rights for infants and toddlers in early childhood education and care settings.It brings together authors from various national contexts to examine changing understandings and manifestations of infant and toddler rights in Early Childhood Education and Care. The book aims to engender trans-national dialogue through the contributions. Through such dialogue, both authors and readers are challenged to recognise the specificity of their own cultural contexts and thereby envision a more expansive view of infant and toddler rights. By drawing together reflections on infant-toddler rights from key early childhood researchers across the world, this book will extend readers understandings of rights – not only in terms of how rights are (re)conceptualised but also how to meaningfully translate the rights afforded in policy to practice.
The first book in the series Policy and Pedagogy with Under-three year olds: Cross Disciplinary insights and innovations establishes a path for the much-needed examination of the experiences of infants and toddlers in contemporary educational settings across the globe. Bringing together internationally renowned scholars in the field, it starts a series of discussions about the positioning of under-three year olds in contemporary practice and policy contexts. It takes an in-depth look at what this means for our understanding of under-three year olds and those who share their worlds. Featuring some of the most important contemporary topics in this pedagogical domain, such as care, well-being, belonging, professionalism and status, the contributors offer a kaleidoscope of perspectives for contemplating the new normality of very young children living their lives in group-based early childhood settings, and what gives rise to their current realities. It also explores some important policy directions and trends.
This book explores the philosophies, barriers and opportunities shaping education environments for children, teachers and student teachers in diverse countries around the world through a series of pertinent articles. These are drawn from the contributors' experiential knowledge of education in contexts such as Australia, Canada, China, Finland, India, Nepal, Palestine, Qatar, South Africa, the UK and Venezuela. The issues raised enable valuable insights into formal education from pre-school to higher education within individual national contexts, while also having significance across state boundaries. They are set against a background of international comparisons, global economies and communications, and environmental and social change. The topics covered include global citizenship, learning environments, inclusion and inequality. Each of the articles introduces a key issue, offers contextualized examples and questions to prompt discussion and further research, along with a guide to further resources. Thoughtfully structured, the editors provide an overarching introduction and concluding chapter, reflecting on global issues and directions of travel in educational policies as well as highlighting countries which are bucking current trends. They also include a short introduction to each part, drawing together chapters and challenging thinking.
This book offers guidance on how to provide high quality provision for two year olds. With a mix of key theories, reflective questions and practice case studies the book will help the practitioner / student to reflect on the links between the development and learning needs of two year olds and how practitioners provide for them. Following the journey two year olds take through all aspects of their experience, the book starts with being at home, through transition into a setting and then considers each aspect of provision. With the case study observations of practice, practitioners and students can accompany the child on their journey in order to better understand the child’s viewpoint and to explore and analyse concepts of good quality practice and provision in order to achieve sustained improvements in provision for this age group.
Diverse international perspectives on the ways in which young children’s learning and care may be supported converge in this book. Traversing the field of early childhood education and care from its established philosophical underpinnings to 21st century research, policies, and practices, the contributions to this volume draw together past and present discourses as a basis for shaping future trajectories. In spite of a growing international consensus on the strong influence of early childhood experiences on lifetime outcomes, the nineteen chapters reveal contemporary early childhood pedagogy as a collection of spaces characterised by plurality, complexity, and dissonance. These characteristics signal the importance of recognising early childhood pedagogies: multiple models of practice for the many diverse learning and care contexts that have the capacity to value young children as individuals and enable each to flourish now and throughout their lives. Moreover, such characteristics disrupt notions that a single ‘optimal’ early childhood pedagogy is either possible or desirable.
Child care environments have received extensive research attention by those interested in understanding how participating in nonparental child care might influence the children's development and learning. Throughout the United States (US Census Bureau, 2011) and Europe (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2006) a large number of young children are cared for outside of the home by non-parental adults. Young children’s nonparental care is commonly referred to as "child care,” and is provided to children whose ages range from birth to 12 years of age. The provision of child care services has become an increasingly important part of early childhood education. In fact, the United Nations Children's Fund (2019) states that a large majority of children worldwide spend at least some of their week in child care, such arrangements include center care, family child care, in-home child care, relative child care, and supplemental child care. Child care researchers have been conducting studies to understand how participating in nonparental child care might influence the children's development and learning outcomes. There are more than enough child care studies to make numerous major inferences. For example, research outcomes show that child care quality seems to be more influential than either the kind of child care or age of admission in determining the children’s development and learning. The adults’ child care affects the quality in child care. In the environment adults who are caring for the children have the opportunity to effectively assume both nurturing and instructional roles to help young children cultivate their social and cognitive abilities. The teachers’ effectiveness is related to their individual characteristics, such as formal education, specialized training, and the classroom environment. However, the majority of the studies show that both family and quality of child care have the most significant effects on the children’s development and learning. Therefore, the concept of child care has heavily influenced modern views. Researchers, scholars, and educators are beginning to understand the current foundations based on theoretical frameworks that contribute to the purposes of the child care in the United States and Europe. The contents of the child care volume reflect the major shifts in the views of these early childhood researchers, scholars, and educators in relation to research outcomes on child care, its historical roots, the role of child care in early childhood education, and its relationship to theory, research, and practice.
The Routledge Handbook of Philosophies and Theories of Early Childhood Education and Care brings together leading writers in the field to provide a much-needed, authoritative guide to the major philosophies and theories which have shaped approaches to Early Childhood Education and Care. Providing a detailed overview of key concepts, debates and practical challenges, the handbook combines theoretical acumen with specific examples to show how philosophies and theories have evolved over the centuries and their impact on policy and society. It examines the ways in which societies define and make sense of childhood and the factors that influence the development of philosophies about young children and their learning. The collection offers an insight into the key theorists and considers how the economics and politics of their time and personal ideology influenced their ideas about childhood. It looks at curricula and provision which have proved inspirational and how these have impacted on policy and practice in different parts of the world. The handbook also explores alternative and perhaps less familiar philosophies and ideas about babies and young children, their place in society and the ways in which it might be appropriate to educate them Bringing together specially commissioned pieces by a range of international authors, this handbook will enable academics, research students, practitioners and policy-makers to reflect on their own understandings and approaches, as well as the assumptions made in their own and other societies.
