The child’s curriculum as a gift: Opening up the early-level curriculum in Scotland

Many countries worldwide benefit from a long tradition of early childhood education, some serving the years from birth to seven or eight years old. Determined to provide out-of-home experiences for children before school start, this costly exercise has led to review of location, staffing, pedagogical approaches, and curriculum, while advocating ‘the best interests of the child’. Curriculum reform has often been used as an educational policy tool. There have been shifts in the roles and responsibilities of early educators and consequently in early childhood practices nationally and internationally. The long Scottish early childhood tradition provides a context in which to consider how an understanding of the child’s curriculum may be a gift to ensure an enlightened early childhood educational policy and curriculum interpretation at the beginning of the twenty-first century. By looking back, we can begin to look forward.