Transforming Early Childhood in England:


Book Description

Early childhood education and care has been a political priority in England since 1997, when government finally turned its attention to this long-neglected area. Public funding has increased, policy initiatives have proliferated and at each general election political parties aim to outbid each other in their offer to families. Transforming Early Childhood in England: Towards a Democratic Education argues that, despite this attention, the system of early childhood services remains flawed and dysfunctional. National discourse is dominated by the cost and availability of childcare at the expense of holistic education, while a hotchpotch of fragmented provision staffed by a devalued workforce struggles with a culture of targets and measurement. With such deep-rooted problems, early childhood education and care in England is beyond minor improvements. In the context of austerity measures affecting many young families, transformative change is urgent.




Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain


Book Description

A bold, brain-based teaching approach to culturally responsive instruction To close the achievement gap, diverse classrooms need a proven framework for optimizing student engagement. Culturally responsive instruction has shown promise, but many teachers have struggled with its implementation—until now. In this book, Zaretta Hammond draws on cutting-edge neuroscience research to offer an innovative approach for designing and implementing brain-compatible culturally responsive instruction. The book includes: Information on how one’s culture programs the brain to process data and affects learning relationships Ten “key moves” to build students’ learner operating systems and prepare them to become independent learners Prompts for action and valuable self-reflection




Learning by Design


Book Description

Learning by design guide.




Encounters With Materials in Early Childhood Education


Book Description

Encounters with Materials in Early Childhood Education rearticulates understandings of materials—blocks of clay, sheets of paper, brushes and paints—to formulate what happens when we think with materials and apply them to early childhood development and classrooms. The book develops ways of thinking about materials that are more sustainable and insightful than what most children in the Western world experience today through capitalist narratives. Through a series of ethnographic events and engagement with existing ideas of relationality in the visual arts, feminist ethics, science studies, philosophy, and anthropology, Encounters with Materials in Early Childhood Education highlights how materials can be conceptualized as active participants in early childhood education and generators of human insight. A variety of examples show how educators, young children, and researchers have engaged in thinking with materials in early years classrooms and explore what materials are capable of in their encounters with other materials and with children. Please visit the companion website at www.encounterswithmaterials.com for additional features, including interviews with the authors and the teachers featured in the book, videos and photographs of the classroom narratives described in these pages, and an ongoing blog of the authors’ ethnographic notes.




Transformative Pedagogies for Teacher Education


Book Description

People are on the move all across the globe and the student population is becoming increasingly more diverse. This has brought about new opportunities and challenges for educators, and teachers. In this series teacher educators a) deconstruct and problematize what it means to educate new teachers for increasingly diverse schools and classroom contexts, and b) highlight experiences of teacher educators as they attempt to bridge the theory to practice divide often encountered in teacher education. In these challenging times when public education is under attack, culturally responsive, antiracist, critical multicultural, social justice and all forms of teaching that are inclusive and equitable must be supported and encouraged. As schools continue to be spaces where ideas and values that promote equity and justice in society are contested, teachers must be proactive in engaging in pedagogies that respond to the needs of a diverse student population. Transformative Pedagogies bring together the work of teachers, scholars, and activists from different countries and contexts who are seeking to transform teacher education. This book will be useful to all educators seeking alternative and innovative approaches to education and meeting the needs of students. Teacher educators examine what it means to be transformative and drawing on experiences from different contexts.




Transformative Media Pedagogies


Book Description

Exploring the concept of individual and collective transformation as the underlying driver for media pedagogy, this book offers valuable insights and practical strategies for implementing transformative media pedagogies across learning environments and civic ecosystems. Each chapter takes the form of critical and reflective writing on specific processes and practices that emerged from contributors' experiences of participating in the Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change, an experimental and immersive transformational media pedagogy project born in 2007, and continuing to this day. Together, contributors examine media pedagogies that prioritize value constructions like human connection, care, imagination, and agency, all of which collectively support a transformative approach to learning. While this book takes into account media pedagogies that focus on competencies and skills, its priority is to reveal and offer learning pathways that develop media makers and storytellers focused on positive social impact in the world. This book will be of interest to any media educators, researchers, practitioners, and entrepreneurs seeking to implement transformative media pedagogies that support equitable and just civic futures.










The Routledge International Handbook of the Place of Religion in Early Childhood Education and Care


Book Description

Understanding the place of religion in Early Childhood Education and Care is of critical importance for the development of cultural literacy and plays a key role in societal coherence and inclusion. This international handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the place of religion in the societal educational arenas of the very youngest children across the globe. Drawing together contributions from leading international experts across disciplinary backgrounds, it offers a critical view of how to approach the complexities around the place of religion in Early Childhood Education and Care. Through its four parts, the book examines the theoretical, methodological, policy and practice perspectives and explores the complex intersections of transmission of "cultural heritage" and "national values" with the diverse, changing societal contexts. Each chapter contributes to an increased understanding of how the place of religion in Early Childhood Education and Care can be understood across continents, countries and educational systems. The Routledge International Handbook of the Place of Religion in Early Childhood Education and Care is an essential resource for academics, researchers, students and practitioners working in Early Childhood Education, Sociology of Childhood, Religious Education and other related fields