The Matrix Ate My Baby


Book Description

The book interrogates the value of play as an essential component of learning, and the essential role of play in a technological society’s aspirations for progress. Drawing upon the philosophy of technology, this book provides parents, teachers and teacher educators with a critique of predominant perspectives regarding the young child’s increasingly hi-tech world.




Play and Learning in Early Childhood Settings


Book Description

This book represents the outcome of the joint activities of a group of scholars who were concerned about the lack of international research in play for children from birth to 3 years. The authors are members of the Organisation Mondiale pour ` l’Education Prescholaire ́ (OMEP). For further information, see http://www.om- ong.net/. The idea of carrying out a research project internationally was born at the OMEP’s World Congress in Melbourne, Australia 2004. All member countries were invited and 10 countries decided to participate, of which three have withdrawn d- ing the process. The reason for this might be that in these countries only one person was working with the project, while other seven countries have been working in a team of two or more persons. The countries that have carried out research and contributed to this book with a chapter each are Australia, Chile, China, Japan, New Zealand, Sweden and USA (Wisconsin). For more information about the p- ticipating countries and their corresponding addresses, see Appendix I. This book project started in Melbourne with a discussion about what is general in early childhood education globally, and what is culturally speci c. The discussion was inspired by one of the keynote speakers, Nazhat Shameem (2004), judge in the supreme court in Fiji, when she said: “If we all think we are so different and speci c in each culture, the role of human rights has no value anymore.” We formulated three questions:




Under-three Year Olds in Policy and Practice


Book Description

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.




Innovations in Narrative and Metaphor


Book Description

This book pursues an interdisciplinary approach to open a discourse on innovative methodologies and practices associated with narrative and metaphor. Scholars from diverse fields in the humanities and social sciences report on how they use narrative and/or metaphor in their scholarship/research to arrive at new ways of seeing, thinking about and acting in the world. The book provides a range of methodological chapters for academics and practitioners alike. Each chapter discusses various aspects of the author’s transformative methodologies and practices and how they contribute to the lives of others in their field. In this regard, the authors address traditional disciplines such as history and geography, as well as professional practices such as counselling, teaching and community work.




Theorising Posthuman Childhood Studies


Book Description

This book is a genealogical foregrounding and performance of conceptions of children and their childhoods over time. We acknowledge that children’s lives are embedded in worlds both inside and outside of structured schooling or institutional settings, and that this relationality informs how we think about what it means to be a child living and experiencing childhood. The book maps the field by taking up a cross-disciplinary, genealogical niche to offer both an introduction to theoretical underpinnings of emerging theories and concepts, and to provide hands-on examples of how they might play out. This book positions children and their everyday lived childhoods in the Anthropocene and focuses on the interface of children’s being in the everyday spaces and places of contemporary communities and societies. In particular this book examines how the shift towards posthuman and new materialist perspectives continues to challenge dominant developmental, social constructivist and structuralist theoretical approaches in diverse ways, to help us to understand contemporary constructions of childhoods. It recognises that while such dominant approaches have long been shown to limit the complexity of what it means to be a child living in the contemporary world, the traditions of many Eurocentric theories have not addressed the diversity of children’s lives in the majority of countries or in the Global South.




The Multiplicities of Internet Addiction


Book Description

Overuse of the internet is often characterized as problematic, disruptive, or addictive, with stories frequently claiming that online use interferes with relationships, or that 'excessive' time in front of computer screens is unhealthy. The Multiplicities of Internet Addiction contests the claim that computers - specifically Internet use - are addictive, arguing that use of the Internet is now a form of everyday leisure engaged in by many people in Western society. Offering an analysis of the nature of addiction alongside a detailed empirical study of home computer use, this book will be of interest not only to sociologists of culture and popular culture, but also to scholars of media, ICT and education.




The SAGE Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood Studies


Book Description

The SAGE Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood Studies navigates our understanding of the historical, political, social and cultural dimensions of childhood. Transdisciplinary and transnational in content and scope, the Encyclopedia both reflects and enables the wide range of approaches, fields and understandings that have been brought to bear on the ever-transforming problem of the "child" over the last four decades This four-volume encyclopedia covers a wide range of themes and topics, including: Social Constructions of Childhood Children’s Rights Politics/Representations/Geographies Child-specific Research Methods Histories of Childhood/Transnational Childhoods Sociology/Anthropology of Childhood Theories and Theorists Key Concepts This interdisciplinary encyclopedia will be of interest to students and researchers in: Childhood Studies Sociology/Anthropology Psychology/Education Social Welfare Cultural Studies/Gender Studies/Disabilty Studies







Childhood, Science Fiction, and Pedagogy


Book Description

This book invites readers to both reassess and reconceptualize definitions of childhood and pedagogy by imagining the possibilities - past, present, and future - provided by the aesthetic turn to science fiction. It explores constructions of children, childhood, and pedagogy through the multiple lenses of science fiction as a method of inquiry, and discusses what counts as science fiction and why science fiction counts. The book examines the notion of relationships in a variety of genres and stories; probes affect in the convergence of childhood and science fiction; and focuses on questions of pedagogy and the ways that science fiction can reflect the status quo of schooling theory, practice, and policy as well as offer alternative educative possibilities. Additionally, the volume explores connections between children and childhood studies, pedagogy and posthumanism. The various contributors use science fiction as the frame of reference through which conceptual links between inquiry and narrative, grounded in theories of media studies, can be developed.




Education, Ethics and Existence


Book Description

Best known today for his novels, plays and short stories, but also an accomplished essayist, editor and journalist, Albert Camus was one of the most influential literary figures of the 20th century. He has gained widespread recognition for works such as The Stranger, Caligula, The Plague and Exile and the Kingdom. In 1957 Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 1960 he was killed in a car accident, aged just 46. Since Camus’ untimely death, his work has been engaged by scholars in literature, politics, philosophy and many other fields. This volume is one of the first book-length studies of Camus with a specifically educational focus. Camus’ writings raise and address ethical and political questions that resonate strongly with current concerns and debates in educational theory, and the difficulties and dilemmas faced by his characters mirror those encountered by many teachers in school classrooms. This book will appeal to all who wish to consider the connections between education, ethics and the problem of human existence. This book was originally published as a special issue of Educational Philosophy & Theory.