Recognising multiple cultural, ethical and geographical influences which impact on the development of a child’s identity, this insightful text explores the role of early childhood practitioners and settings in nurturing and navigating the child’s sense of being and belonging. Multiple Early Childhood Identies confronts the diverse factors which influence early identity-formation to emphasise the child’s understanding of self, outsiders’ projections and the messages communicated by educators, family members and the wider community as critical to a child’s identity and wellbeing. Written to provoke group discussion and extend thinking, this text also provides opportunities for international comparison, points for reflection and editorial provocations and will help students engage critically with the concept of identity-formation and influencing factors. Chapters are divided into four key sections which reflect major influences on practice and pedagogy: Being alongside children Those who educate Embedding families and communities Working with systems Offering in-depth discussion of the diverse perspectives, experiences and practices which impact on the formation of the child’s identity, this text will enhance understanding, support self-directed learning and provoke and transform thinking at both graduate and postgraduate levels, particularly in the field of early childhood education and care, for students, educators, integrated service providers and policy makers.

Recognising multiple cultural, ethical and geographical influences which impact on the development of a child’s identity, this insightful text explores the role of early childhood practitioners and settings in nurturing and navigating the child’s sense of being and belonging. Multiple Early Childhood Identies confronts the diverse factors which influence early identity-formation to emphasise the child’s understanding of self, outsiders’ projections and the messages communicated by educators, family members and the wider community as critical to a child’s identity and wellbeing. Written to provoke group discussion and extend thinking, this text also provides opportunities for international comparison, points for reflection and editorial provocations and will help students engage critically with the concept of identity-formation and influencing factors. Chapters are divided into four key sections which reflect major influences on practice and pedagogy: Being alongside children Those who educate Embedding families and communities Working with systems Offering in-depth discussion of the diverse perspectives, experiences and practices which impact on the formation of the child’s identity, this text will enhance understanding, support self-directed learning and provoke and transform thinking at both graduate and postgraduate levels, particularly in the field of early childhood education and care, for students, educators, integrated service providers and policy makers.

Anti-bias education begins with you! Become a skilled anti-bias teacher with this practical guidance to confronting and eliminating barriers.

How do children determine which identity becomes paramount as they grow into adolescence and early adulthood? Which identity results in patterns of behaviour as they develop? To whom or to which group do they feel a sense of belonging? How might children, adolescents and young adults negotiate the gap between their own sense of identity and the values promoted by external influences? The contributors explore the impact of globalization and pluralism on the way most children and adolescents grow into early adulthood. They look at the influences of media and technology that can be felt within the living spaces of their homes, competing with the religious and cultural influences of family and community, and consider the ways many children and adolescents have developed multiple and virtual identities which help them to respond to different circumstances and contexts. They discuss the ways that many children find themselves in a perpetual state of shifting identities without ever being firmly grounded in one, potentially leading to tension and confusion particularly when there is conflict between one identity and another. This can result in increased anxiety and diminished self-esteem. This book explores how parents, educators and social and health workers might have a raised awareness of the issues generated by plural identities and the overpowering human need to belong so that they can address associated issues and nurture a sense of wholeness in children and adolescents as they grow into early adulthood.

Children’s curiosity about their lives and worlds motivates many interests. Yet, adults often have fixed ideas about what children’s interests are and have been criticised for trivialising children’s interests. This book offers a critical and accessible engagement with research on children’s interests that challenges us to move beyond surface-level understandings. Children’s Interests, Inquiries and Identities argues that the powerful relationship between interests and informal learning has been under-recognised and undervalued. The book proposes new principles for understanding children’s learning. It provides evidence that we need to look beyond the activities or topics children may currently be selecting to find out who and what has stimulated their interests, how we might identify and interpret interests more analytically and deeply, and how we might respond and engage with these in ways that take children’s interests seriously. Moving beyond play-based activities, Helen Hedges explains and illustrates a number of ways by which children’s interests can be interpreted and understood, to get to the heart of what really matters to, and for, children. The book draws on examples from research with children aged under 5 years, and young adults aged 18-25. It also includes a chapter on teachers’ interests. It presents new and original models for interests-based curriculum and sociocultural curriculum and pedagogy for future examination in research and practice. This book demonstrates that leaving behind long-standing, taken-for-granted practices that have influenced understandings of curriculum, pedagogy, learning, and outcomes allows a new perspective of children’s interests to emerge. It will be of interest to researchers, postgraduate students, and practitioners in the early years, parents, and other professionals who work with young children.

This book examines four main areas of music in early childhood: the traditions of music for young children, their capacities for music, the way they make music with others, and constructed and mediated musical childhoods. It studies several themes in detail, including music making in the home and family life, various musical experiences in schools, day cares, and the community at large in several locations around the globe. It looks at technology and diverse musical repertoires, as well as innovative pedagogies, children’s agency, and brain research. Expanding on the knowledge bases on which early childhood music education typically draws, the book brings together contributions from a range of authors from diverse fields such as education, psychology, sociology, cultural studies, anthropology, philosophy, ethnomusicology, and the neurosciences. The end result is a volume that offers a broad and contemporary picture of music in early childhood.

Using information gathered from a combined first and second grade classroom over two years, this book explores the students' routine actions in school, including their views about different literacy activities, their favorite part of school life, peer culture in both the boys' and the girls' worlds, issues of gender power, the integration of the teacher's official discourses and the children's unofficial culture, and the kind of school life children wish to have. Focusing on children's voices and perceptions, this book provides insight that will help educators preserve an accurate view of school culture and create effective policies in education. The book's interdisciplinary approach extensively applies theories and perspectives from educational philosophy, educational anthropology, sociology, post-structuralist theories, narratives, semiotics, literacy education, cultural studies, and critical ethnography. Through these disciplines, the book provides many critical perspectives on early childhood literacy education, classroom culture, and identity construction for educators to incorporate into curriculum design and to reflect on the potential consequences resulting from instructional decisions.

This book offers a range of perspectives on children's multimodal experiences, providing a ground-breaking account of the ways in which children engage with popular culture, media and digital literacy practices from their earliest years. Many young children have extensive experience of film, television, printed media, computer games, mobile phones and the Internet from birth, yet their reaction to media texts is rarely acknowledged in the national curricula of any country. This seminal text focuses on children from birth to eight years, addressing issues such as: * media and identity construction * media literacy practices in the home * the changing nature of literacy in technologically advanced societies * The place of popular and media texts in children's lives and the use of such texts in the curriculum. By exploring children's engagement with popular culture, media and digital texts in the home, community and early years settings, the contributors look at empirical studies from around the world, and draw out vital new theoretical issues relating to children's emergent techno-literacy practices. With an unmatchable team of international experts evaluating topics from text-messaging to the Teletubbies, this book is a long-overdue, fascinating and illuminating read for policy-makers, educational researchers and practitioners, and crosses over to appeal to those in the linguistics field.

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.

First published in 1968, The Irony of Early School Reform quickly became essential reading for anyone interested in American education. One of the first books to survey the relationship between public educational systems and the rise of urbanization and industrialization,Irony was instrumental in mapping out the origins of school reform and locating the source of educational inequalities and bureaucracies in patterns established in the nineteenth century. This new and enhanced version of the classic text is now available for the legions of people who have asked for it. It includes an update by the author along with the same cohesive text and criticism contained in the original. Readers will appreciate that this edition: brings back into print a book that holds an important place in the field of educational history and in the modern literature of educational reform; assesses the impact of the original publication in light of writing about American history and education since its original publication and explains its continuing significance; shatters warm and comforting myths about the origins of public education; and shows how some of the most problematic features of public education have their origins in nineteenth century styles of educational reform.