eye brings you another batch of the latest products and books on offerThe Outdoor Classroom in Practice: Ages 3 to 7 by Karen Constable (ISBN: 9780415729055). Paperback. £23.99. Paperback. Published by Routledge. www.routledge.com; orders via 01235 400400; books.orders@tandf.co.uk Review by Martine HorvathUnderstanding the Reggio Approach by Linda Thornton and Pat Brunton (ISBN: 9781138784383). Paperback. £21.99. Paperback. Published by Routledge. www.routledge.com/education; orders via 01235 400400; books.orders@tandf.co.uk Review by Martine HorvathRisk, Challenge and Adventure in the Early Years by Kathryn Solly (ISBN: 9780415667401). Paperback. £19.99. Published by Routledge. www.routledge.com/education; orders via 01235 400400; orders@tandf.co.uk Review by Martine HorvathPicture books All reviews by Martine HorvathPlanning for Learning through Pirates by Marianne Sargent (ISBN: 9781909280755). £9.99. Paperback. Published by Practical Pre-School Books. Tel: 01722 716935; orders@ practicalpreschoolbooks.com; www.practicalpreschoolbooks.comPlanning for Learning through Sounds by Judith Harries (ISBN: 9781909280687). £9.99. Paperback. As above. Review by Martine HorvathChallenge and Change for the Early Years Workforce edited by Christine Ritchie (ISBN: 9781138016675). £22.99. Paperback. Published by Routledge. www.routledge.com/education; orders via 01235 400400; books.orders@tandf.co.uk Review by Martine HorvathEarly Years Education and Care by Susan Hey (ISBN: 9781138783454). £24.99. Paperback. Published by Routledge. www.routledge.com/education; orders via 01235 400400; books.orders@tandf.co.uk Review by Martine Horvath

Early years education in England is in crisis. This article looks at what is needed to better provide the kind of education and care that young children need outside the home, from birth to school-starting age. It explores: the current arrangements and varieties of provision and approaches in England; educational and developmental research about young children's development and early learning; the current national early years curriculum and how it contrasts to other international models and pedagogical approaches; the importance of play-based learning; the role of adults in observing, recording, assessing and supporting young children's learning; and the holistic nature of children's learning - which makes education and care inseparable in young children's lives. Neoliberal governments have had little interest in these questions: they have been focused instead on marketising the sector, which has led to great inequality of provision; and they have been unwilling to provide the necessary funding to train staff and maintain appropriate learning environments; most fundamentally, they have engaged in an ideological drive to impose on very small children a narrow and formal curriculum that ignores all the evidence about good practice in the sector, and is focused on making them 'school ready' - that is, ready to fit into the rigid frameworks they have already imposed on primary school education.

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Is infant belonging observable? A path through the maze

Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood ◽

10.1177/1463949118793330 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 19 (4) ◽

pp. 404-416

Author(s):

Jane M Selby ◽

Benjamin S Bradley ◽

Jennifer Sumsion ◽

Matthew Stapleton ◽

Linda J Harrison

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Early Childhood Education ◽

Sense Of Belonging ◽

Early Years ◽

Infants And Toddlers ◽

Quality Outcomes ◽

Childhood Education ◽

Learning Framework ◽

Video Recordings ◽

Education And Care

This article evaluates the concept of infant ‘belonging’, central to several national curricula for early childhood education and care. Here, the authors focus on Australia’s Early Years Learning Framework. Four different meanings attach to ‘belonging’ in the Early Years Learning Framework, the primary being sociopolitical. However, ‘a sense of belonging’ is also proposed as something that should be observable and demonstrable in infants and toddlers – such demonstration being held up as one of the keys to quality outcomes in early childhood education and care. The Early Years Learning Framework endows belonging with two contrasting meanings when applied to infants. The first, the authors call ‘marked belonging’, and it refers to the infant’s exclusion from or inclusion in defined groups of others. The second, the authors provisionally call ‘unmarked’ belonging. Differences between these two meanings of infant belonging are explored by describing two contrasting observational vignettes from video recordings of infants in early childhood education and care. The authors conclude that ‘belonging’ is not a helpful way to refer to, or empirically demonstrate, an infant’s mundane comfort or ‘unmarked’ agentive ease in shared early childhood education and care settings. A better way to conceptualise and research this would be through the prism of infants’ proven capacity to participate in groups.

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Leadership in early childhood education: The case for pedagogical praxis

Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood ◽

10.1177/1463949118819100 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 23-34 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ioanna Palaiologou ◽

Trevor Male

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Early Childhood Education ◽

Early Years ◽

Childhood Education ◽

Ideological Struggle ◽

Education And Care ◽

Curriculum Reforms ◽

Predominately Female ◽

Teacher Status

In this conceptual article, the authors examine the context of early childhood education and care in England and the underpinning predominant ideologies to explore how these impact on the framing of leadership. The English context entails several contradictions (antinomies) at ontological, epistemological and axiological levels, and is heavily influenced by an ideological struggle concerning the value of play within the sector as opposed to a climate of child performativity. Moreover, the predominately female workforce (a factor itself) has faced relentless changes in terms of qualifications and curriculum reforms in recent years. With the introduction of the graduate leader qualification (Early Years Teacher Status), a vast body of research has been seeking to conceptualise what leadership means for early childhood education and care. In this article, the authors argue that these attempts are helpful and contribute to this discourse of leadership, but it needs to be thought of not only abstractly, but also practically. Thus, the authors conclude, the (re)conceptualisation of leadership should locate it as pedagogical praxis after evaluating the inherent deep dispositions of leaders in conjunction with their history, surrounding culture and subjective perspectives/realities.

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Partnerships in Early Childhood Education and Care: Empowering Parents or Empowering Practitioners

Global Studies of Childhood ◽

10.2304/gsch.2012.2.1.14 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 14-25 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Elizabeth Rouse

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Early Childhood Education ◽

Early Years ◽

Decision Makers ◽

Professional Status ◽

Small Scale ◽

Practice Model ◽

Childhood Education ◽

Learning Framework ◽

Education And Care

Research acknowledges that outcomes for young children are enhanced when effective partnerships are developed between educators and families. The Australian Early Years Learning Framework provides direction for the professional practice of early childhood educators by acknowledging the importance of educators working in partnership with families. In the Victorian state-based early years framework, family-centred practice has been included as the practice model. Family-centred practice has as its core a philosophy of professionals supporting the empowerment of parents as active decision makers for their child. The early childhood education and care sector in Australia, however, is made up of a workforce which is largely perceived as being undervalued as a profession. This raises questions as to the capacity of these educators to support the empowerment of parents when they themselves are coming from a position of disempowerment due to their professional status. This article reports on findings from a small-scale study of childhood educators working in a long day-care setting which aimed to identify perceptions of the partnerships that exist between themselves and parents. In the course of the investigation, it became evident that some of educators felt disempowered in the relationships that exist with some families.

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Building a Learning Community Online

Managing Learning in Virtual Settings ◽

10.4018/978-1-59140-488-0.ch017 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 309-321

Author(s):

Tessa Owens ◽

Petra Luck

Keyword(s):

Online Learning ◽

Learning Community ◽

Community Of Practice ◽

Student Evaluations ◽

Early Years ◽

Early Years Education ◽

Education And Care ◽

E Learning

This chapter reviews a pilot e-learning project at Liverpool Hope University Col-lege. It will illustrate an approach to online learning aimed at students working inthe early years education and care sector and attempts to demonstrate the devel-opment of a “community of practice.” This chapter will discuss how the contextinformed the rationale for the approaches taken by the staff team and providescommentary from student evaluations highlighting their experiences.

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‘Nationalising’ and Transforming the Public Funding of Early Years Education (and care) in England 1996–2017

British Journal of Educational Studies ◽

10.1080/00071005.2018.1478058 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 67 (2) ◽

pp. 145-167 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Anne West ◽

Philip Noden

Keyword(s):

Public Funding ◽

Early Years ◽

The Public ◽

Early Years Education ◽

Education And Care

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Early Years Education and Care

Education Studies: Essential Issues Education studies: Essential issues ◽

10.4135/9781446215043.n2 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 14-41

Author(s):

Helen Moylett

Keyword(s):

Early Years ◽

Early Years Education ◽

Education And Care

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Inclusion in Early Childhood: Difference, Disability, and Social Justice

Education ◽

10.1093/obo/9780199756810-0265 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Kathryn Underwood ◽

Gillian Parekh

Keyword(s):

Social Justice ◽

Early Childhood ◽

Early Intervention ◽

Early Childhood Education ◽

Inclusive Education ◽

Early Years ◽

Childhood Studies ◽

Childhood Education ◽

School Settings ◽

Education And Care

Inclusive education as a model of service delivery arose out of disability activism and critiques of special education. To understand inclusive education in early childhood, however, one must also engage with broader questions of difference, diversity, and social justice as they intersect with childhood studies. To that end, this article contains references that include other critical discourses on childhood and inclusivity as well as critiques of inclusive education. Inclusive education has a much deeper body of research in formal school settings than in the early years. School-based research, however, often examines social relationships and academic achievement as outcome measures. This research has established that education situated in a child’s community and home school is generally more effective than special education settings, particularly when classroom educators have access to appropriate training, resources, policies, and leadership. Schools, of course, are part of the education landscape of the early years, but they are not inclusive of the full spectrum or early years settings. The early years literature on inclusion is different in focusing more attention on development, family, and community (as described in the General Overview of Early Childhood Inclusion). A critique of early childhood education research has focused on school readiness and rehabilitation and the efficacy of early identification and early intervention. This research is largely informed by Western medical research, but this approach has led global institutions to set out priorities for early intervention without recognizing how our worldview shapes our understanding of childhood and difference. The dominant research domain, however, has also identified that family and community contexts are important. This recognition creates a fundamental difference between inclusion research in school settings and such research in early childhood education and care. Early childhood education and care has always focused on the child and their family as the recipients of services, while educational interest in the family has been viewed as a setting in which the conditions for learning are established. Support for families is at the center of early childhood inclusive practice, both because families are largely responsible for seeking out early childhood disability services and because families are critical in children’s identity. Inclusion in schools and early childhood education and care can both be understood through theories of disability, ability, and capability. In both settings, education and care have social justice aims linked not only to developmental and academic outcomes for individual children, but also to the ways that these programs reproduce inequality. Disability as a social phenomenon has its historical roots in racist and colonial practices, understood through critical race theory, that are evident today in both early childhood and school settings. Understanding the links between disableism and other forms of discrimination and oppression is critical both for teaching for social justice broadly and for better understanding of how ability, capability, and critical disability theory and childhood studies are established through practices that begin in the early years.

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