This book offers a radical new reading of William James's work on the idea of 'religion.' Moving beyond previous psychological and philosophical interpretations, it uncovers a dynamic, imaginative, and critical use of the category of religion. This work argues that we can only fully understand James's work on religion by returning to the ground of his metaphysics of relations and by incorporating literary and historical themes. Author Jeremy Carette develops original perspectives on the influence of James's father and Calvinism, on the place of the body and sex in James, on the significance of George Eliot's novels, and Herbert Spencer's 'unknown,' revealing a social and political discourse of civil religion and republicanism and a poetic imagination at the heart of James understanding of religion. These diverse themes are brought together through a post-structural sensitivity and a recovery of the importance of the French philosopher Charles Renouvier to James's work. This study pushes new boundaries in Jamesian scholarship by reading James with pluralism and from the French tradition. It will be a benchmark text in the reshaping of James and the nineteenth-century foundations of the modern study of 'religion.'

The Hidden History of Early Childhood Education provides an understandable and manageable exploration of the history of early childhood education in the United States. Covering historical, philosophical, and sociological underpinnings that reach from the 1800s to today, contributors explore groups and topics that have traditionally been marginalized or ignored in early childhood education literature. Chapters include topics such as home-schooling, early childhood education in Japanese-American internment camps, James "Jimmy" Hymes, the Eisenhower legacy, Constance Kamii, and African-American leaders of the field. This engaging book examines a range of new primary sources to be shared with the field for the first time, including personal narratives, interviews, and letters. The Hidden History of Early Childhood Education is a valuable resource for every early childhood education scholar, student, and practitioner.

Media across the Asia-Pacific region are at once social, locative and mobile. Social in that these media facilitate public and interpersonal interaction, locative in that this social communication is geographically placed, and mobile in so much as the media is ever-present. The Asia Pacific region has been pivotal in the production, shaping and consumption of personal new media technologies and through social and mobile media we can see emerging certain types of personal politics that are inflected by the local.

The six case studies that inform this book Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, Manila, Singapore and Melbourne offer a range of economic, socio-cultural, and linguistic differences, enabling the authors to provide new insights into specific issues pertaining to mobile media in each city. These include social, mobile and locative media as a form of crisis management in post 3/11 Tokyo; generational shifts in Shanghai; political discussion and the shifting social fabric in Singapore; and the erosion of public and private, and work and leisure paradigms in Melbourne. Through its striking case studies, this book sheds new light on how the region and its contested and multiple identities are evolving, and concludes by revealing the impact of mobile media on how place is shaped, as well as shaping, practices of mobility, intimacy and a sense of belonging.

Employing comprehensive, cross-disciplinary frameworks from theoretical approaches such as media sociology, ethnography, cultural studies and media and communication studies, "Online@AsiaPacific" will be of huge interest to students and scholars of Asian culture and society, cybercultures, new media studies, communication studies and internet studies.

Young Children, Pedagogy and the Arts is an innovative text that describes practices and research that cross all five strands of the arts-visual, drama, music, dance, and media-and illuminates ways of understanding children and their arts practices that go beyond the common traditions. The book: - Offers practical and rich illustrations of teachers' and children's work based on international research that integrates theory with practice; - Brings a critical lens to arts education; - Includes summaries, reflective questions, and recommended further readings with every chapter. Young Children, Pedagogy and the Arts provides a more nuanced understanding of the arts through an exploration of specific instances in which committed teachers and researchers are discovering what contemporary multimodal tools offer to young children. Chapters contain examples of 'doing' the arts in the early years, new ways of teaching, and how to use emerging technologies to develop multiliteracies, equity, agency, social and cultural capital, and enhance the learning and engagement of marginalized children.

This book, first published in 1969, is a detailed consideration of Rousseau's ideas on education, and an examination of how they grew out of his own experiences in childhood. With particular reference to the Confessions and Emile, this book emphasises the practical application of Rousseau's theories and traces them through each stage of education. Professor Dobinson clearly analyses Rousseau's views on the general upbringing of children from early infancy to late adolescence, and on the teaching of such subjects as science, history and religion. This book demonstrates throughout the relevance of Rousseau's thought to the fundamental issues in contemporary education.

A unique companion to professional play practice

All play professionals are united in their belief that play is important for children s development and there are inherent characteristics of play that underpin professional play practice across contexts. Providing an overarching concept of play, drawing together the evidence base across disciplines and linking theory to practice, "The Essence of" "Play "is the ideal handbook for all those working with children.

Play acts as a natural resource for children to meet physical, intellectual and emotional challenges and this book, unusually, considers play from the perspectives of children rather than adults. It provides a baseline of shared knowledge for all play professionals, exploring the fundamental value of play rather than a how to approach to practice. It considers:

• the therapeutic potential inherent in play;
• how play reflects and promotes physical, emotional, intellectual, linguistic and social abilities;
• the emergence of different types of play skills and why these are important;
• cross-cultural patterns in play, gender, atypicality and adversity, highlighting the relevance of these issues to professional play practice;
• the benefits of utilising play for assessment and other professional practice issues such as ethical play practice, balancing risk with health and safety and the creation and management of boundaries.

This text is designed for students and practitioners working with children across the helping professions, including early years education, play therapy, playwork, childcare, social care, nursing and allied health. Each chapter provides directed reading and small reflective tasks to encourage readers to digest key issues.

In this fascinating new book, Affrica Taylor encourages an exciting paradigmatic shift in the ways in which childhood and nature are conceived and pedagogically deployed, and invites readers to critically reassess the naturalist childhood discourses that are rife within popular culture and early years education.

Through adopting a common worlds framework, "Reconfiguring the Natures of Childhood" generates a number of complex and inclusive ways of seeing and representing the early years. It recasts childhood as:

• messy and implicated rather than pure and innocent;
• situated and differentiated rather than decontextualized and universal;
• entangled within real world relations rather than protected in a separate space.

Throughout the book, the author follows an intelligent and innovative line of thought which challenges many pre-existing ideas about childhood. Drawing upon cross-disciplinary perspectives, and with international relevance, this book makes an important contribution to the field of childhood studies and early childhood education, and will be a valuable resource for scholars, postgraduate students and higher education teachers.

This revised and updated second edition of Working with Children's Language has been created to support practitioners who work with young children with delayed language acquisition. Rooted in a developmental theory of language learning, it covers topics such as attention control and listening, the role of play, verbal comprehension and the acquisition of spoken expressive language. Each chapter offers a straightforward overview of current research relating to the specific language skill before introducing a wealth of targeted games and activities that can help support the development of those skills. Key features include: * A structured approach to language learning that can be followed as a programme or adapted for informal use by individual practitioners. * Accessible activities, games and ideas suitable for small group or individual intervention, linked to specific aims based on developmental norms. * Photocopiable and downloadable resources, including a record sheet to track progress in each skill against aims and outcomes for individual children. Clearly linking theory and practice in an engaging and easy-to-follow format, this is an invaluable resource to support children in early years settings and Key Stage 1 whose language is delayed, but who are otherwise developing normally. It is a must-have book for early years practitioners, teachers, SEND professionals and speech and language therapists with varying levels of experience.

The thought of a looming Ofsted inspection can send even the most positive practitioner into a panic. Julian Grenier leads you through the new updated Ofsted framework, and shows you how to navigate the process. He focuses on doing what is best for children and families to build long-lasting and effective provision that can be maintained before, during and after inspection. This new edition includes: * More downloadable templates and resources * Detailed coverage of the curriculum, and the new 'Quality of education' judgement * Guidance on working with parents and carers to ensure their voices are part of the Ofsted inspection process This book is ideal for Headteachers, EYFS co-ordinators, Nursery Managers and Early Years practitioners.

Posthuman research playspaces: Climate child imaginaries addresses the need for new forms of climate change education that are responsive to the rapidly changing material conditions of children's socioecological worlds. The book provides a comprehensive understanding of how posthumanist concepts and methods can be creatively developed and deployed in collaboration with children and young people. It connects climate change education with posthumanist studies of childhood in the social sciences and environmental humanities. It also offers opportunities for readers to encounter new theoretical and methodological approaches for collaborative art, inquiry, and learning with children. Drawing on three years of participatory research undertaken with 135 children in the Climate Change and Me (CC+Me) project, it takes children's creative and affective responses to climate change as the starting point for the co-production of knowledge, community engagement, and the transformation of pedagogy and curriculum in schools. Thinking through process philosophy, and in particular, the works of Whitehead and Deleuze, the book develops new concepts and methods of creative inquiry which situate children's learning, aesthetic production, and theory-building within a more-than-human ecology of experience. The book presents a series of generative openings and propositions for future research in the field of climate change education, while also offering wide-ranging applications for graduate students and researchers in childhood and youth studies, the environmental arts and humanities, cultural studies of science and technology, educational philosophy, and environmental education.

In the past several years, models of multi-tiered service delivery have emerged as a framework for supporting the needs of school-aged children in schools across the country and have received much attention in scholarly publications of education and related fields. Despite the needs of young children and the promise of early intervention, however, models of multi-tiered service delivery are only in the beginning stages of development in early childhood education settings such as preschools. This text provides early-childhood professionals with an introduction to tiered service delivery and practical considerations in the implementation of a multi-tier system of supports with particular emphasis on early childhood law and ethics, assessment and intervention, developmental disabilities, and family engagement.

Understanding the Te Wh riki Approach is a much needed source of information for those wishing to extend and consolidate their understanding of the Te Wh riki approach, introducing the reader to an innovative bicultural curriculum developed for early childhood services in New Zealand. It will enable the reader to analyse the essential elements of this approach to early childhood and its relationship to quality early years practice.

Providing students and practitioners with the relevant information about a key pedagogical influence on high quality early years practice in the United Kingdom, the book explores all areas of the curriculum, emphasising:

• strong curriculum connections to families and the wider community;
• a view of teaching and learning that focuses on responsive and reciprocal relationships with people, places and things;
• a view of curriculum content as cross-disciplinary and multi-modal;
• the aspirations for children to grow up as competent and confident learners and communicators, healthy in mind, body, and spirit, secure in their sense of belonging and in the knowledge that they make a valued contribution to society;
• a bicultural framework in which indigenous voices have a central place.

Written to support the work of all those in the field of early years education and childcare, this is a vital text for students, early years and childcare practitioners, teachers, early years professionals, children s centre professionals, lecturers, advisory teachers, head teachers and setting managers.

In the past several years, models of multi-tiered service delivery have emerged as a framework for supporting the needs of school-aged children in schools across the country and have received much attention in scholarly publications of education and related fields. Despite the needs of young children and the promise of early intervention, however, models of multi-tiered service delivery are only in the beginning stages of development in early childhood education settings such as preschools. This text provides early-childhood professionals with an introduction to tiered service delivery and practical considerations in the implementation of a multi-tier system of supports with particular emphasis on early childhood law and ethics, assessment and intervention, developmental disabilities, and family engagement.

This core text offers you an accessible foundation to the topics of diversity, inclusion and marginalisation. Not only will you develop an understanding of how marginalisation happens, you will be encouraged to question and challenge policy and practice through case studies, reflective questions and activities. The book analyses issues encountered by marginalised groups and the impact these may have on the lives of those concerned, together with how you, as a practitioner, can help to empower these individuals and groups. With key chapters bringing attention to less cited marginalised groups such as transgender children, children with mental health conditions and looked after children, the author critically analyses the difficulties and challenges of inclusive ideology in practice, the role of mass media in reinforcing prejudice and examines theoretical frameworks and concepts related to marginalisation, inclusion and diversity.

Growing Children's Social and Emotional Skills examines how parent-educator partnerships can be achieved to enhance the development of children's social and emotional skills. The book presents the TOGETHER programme, a training programme that emphasises the importance of the relationship between caregivers and teachers with the children in their care, as well as deepening the collaborative partnerships between teachers, educators and caregivers. Using a case study approach, the book explores the application of the TOGETHER programme across various home and early childhood education contexts through the unique voices of those involved. The TOGETHER programme presented in this book is: * Easy to implement and adaptable, requiring minimal training time for parents, teachers and educators * Designed to emphasise the importance of relationships in developing children's social and emotional skills * Supported by photocopiable resources and a downloadable e-manual that can be used to implement the training With the vision to empower caregivers to take an active role in building children's social and emotional competence, this book is written in a way that will appeal to academic researchers and tertiary students, early childhood educators and other caregivers. It will assist in recognising children's strengths and deepening collaborative partnerships between families, educators and other caregivers.

Play and the Artist's Creative Process explores a continuity between childhood play and adult creativity. The volume examines how an understanding of play can shed new light on processes that recur in the work of Philip Guston and Eduardo Paolozzi. Both artists' distinctive engagement with popular culture is seen as connected to the play materials available in the landscapes of their individual childhoods. Animating or toying with material to produce the unforeseen outcome is explored as the central force at work in the artists' processes. By engaging with a range of play theories, the book shows how the artists' studio methods can be understood in terms of game strategies.

Innocence, Knowledge and the Construction of Childhood provides a critical examination of the way we regulate children s access to certain knowledge and explores how this regulation contributes to the construction of childhood, to children s vulnerability and to the constitution of the good future citizen in developed countries.

Through this controversial analysis, Kerry H. Robinson critically engages with the relationships between childhood, sexuality, innocence, moral panic, censorship and notions of citizenship. This book highlights how the strict regulation of children s knowledge, often in the name of protection or in the child s best interest, can ironically, increase children s prejudice around difference, increase their vulnerability to exploitation and abuse, and undermine their abilities to become competent adolescents and adults. Within her work Robinson draws upon empirical research to:

• provide an overview of the regulation and governance of children s access to difficult knowledge, particularly knowledge of sexuality
• explore and develop Foucault s work on the relationship between childhood and sexuality
• identify the impact of these discourses on adults understanding of childhood, and the tension that exists between their own perceptions of sexual knowledge, and the perceptions of children
• reconceptualise children s education around sexuality.

Innocence, Knowledge and the Construction of Childhood" is essential reading for both undergraduate and postgraduate students undertaking courses in education, particularly with a focus on early childhood or primary teaching, as well as in other disciplines such as sociology, gender and sexuality studies, and cultural studies.

What should be the relationship between early childhood and compulsory education? What can they learn from one another and by working together?

The rapid expansion of early childhood education and care means that most children in affluent countries now have several years at pre-school before compulsory education. This raises an important question about the relationship between the two. Whilst it's widely assumed that the former should prepare children for the latter, there are alternatives. This book contests the 'readying for school' relationship as neither self-evident nor unproblematic; and explores some alternative relationships, including a strong and equal partnership and the vision of a meeting place.

In this ground-breaking book, Professor Peter Moss discusses the issue with leading early childhood figures - from Belgium, France, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the United States -who bring very different perspectives to this contentious relationship. The book starts with an extended essay by Peter Moss, to which the other contributors are invited to respond critically, as well as offering their own thinking about the relationship between early childhood and compulsory education, both their current understandings and suggestions on future directions.

Students, researchers and academics in the field of early childhood education will find this an insightful and timely text. But so too will their peers in compulsory education, since the book time and again raises searching questions about pedagogical purpose and practice in this sector.

First published in 1950, Long Term Results of Infant School Methods was written to explain and summarise the results of Gardner's experiment to test the extent to which the effect of different styles of Infant school education, "experimental" or "control", would also be apparent at a later stage. The book details how the tests and the schools involved were chosen; the different types of tests conducted and their respective aims; and a summary of Gardner's conclusions. It will appeal to those with an interest in the history and theory of education.

What should be the relationship between early childhood and compulsory education? What can they learn from one another and by working together? The rapid expansion of early childhood education and care means that most children in affluent countries now have several years at pre-school before compulsory education. This raises an important question about the relationship between the two. Whilst it's widely assumed that the former should prepare children for the latter, there are alternatives. This book contests the 'readying for school' relationship as neither self-evident nor unproblematic; and explores some alternative relationships, including a strong and equal partnership and the vision of a meeting place. In this ground-breaking book, Professor Peter Moss discusses the issue with leading early childhood figures - from Belgium, France, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the United States -who bring very different perspectives to this contentious relationship. The book starts with an extended essay by Peter Moss, to which the other contributors are invited to respond critically, as well as offering their own thinking about the relationship between early childhood and compulsory education, both their current understandings and suggestions on future directions. Students, researchers and academics in the field of early childhood education will find this an insightful and timely text. But so too will their peers in compulsory education, since the book time and again raises searching questions about pedagogical purpose and practice in this sector.

Loris Malaguzzi is recognised as the founder of the extraordinary programmes of preschool education that developed after the war in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Deeply embedded in the cultures and communities they serve, these unique preschools have justifiably become famous throughout the world.

In this accessible and engaging text, Sandra Smidt examines how Malaguzzi's philosophy developed out of his personal experiences of growing up in post-fascist Italy. His ideas are explored and illustrated throughout by examples relating to everyday early years practice. The key themes explored include:

• relationships - the importance of relationships, culture and contexts to learning within any setting and beyond;
• transparency - the importance of listening and documentation to understanding and sharing learning;
• questioning - inviting children to not only answer questions but raise them, allowing them to be equal partners in all learning situations;
• creativity - finding ways of enabling children to use all the expressive languages they can find to express and share their ideas;
• equity and fairness - involving the community in all decision-making and discussions, to ensure that early childhood education is accessible and relevant to all children.

This book will be of benefit to all those working with young children and essential reading for students on early childhood education programmes.

Assessment of Young Children with Special Needs, Second Edition helps prepare teachers for the task of evaluating the skills of infants, toddlers, and preschool children with developmental delays and those considered at risk to experience developmental delays or difficulties. A child's environment is a critical consideration when focusing on assessment, and authors Susan Benner and Joan Grim explore the important issues of family resources, health, multidimensional environmental influences, economic deprivation, and domestic violence on infant and child development. This textbook conveys a sense of respect for parents, the powerful influence assessment results can and do have in the lives of young children with special needs, and an understanding of the complexity of child development, progression, and measurement. This book sets the tone for important values and beliefs to honor throughout one's professional life. This fully revised edition addresses recent legislation, updated versions of assessment, and the newest assessment tools that teachers will come across. The popular full-length case studies of the first edition have been updated, and vignettes of other cases are fully integrated across chapters, bringing the text alive with meaning. Assessment of Young Children with Special Needs, Second Edition now includes expanded discussion on progress monitoring and response to intervention, functional behavioral analysis, pros and cons of norm-referenced testing, web-based gathering tools, ELL students, and screening for autism.

Innocence, Knowledge and the Construction of Childhood provides a critical examination of the way we regulate children s access to certain knowledge and explores how this regulation contributes to the construction of childhood, to children s vulnerability and to the constitution of the good future citizen in developed countries.

Through this controversial analysis, Kerry H. Robinson critically engages with the relationships between childhood, sexuality, innocence, moral panic, censorship and notions of citizenship. This book highlights how the strict regulation of children s knowledge, often in the name of protection or in the child s best interest, can ironically, increase children s prejudice around difference, increase their vulnerability to exploitation and abuse, and undermine their abilities to become competent adolescents and adults. Within her work Robinson draws upon empirical research to:

• provide an overview of the regulation and governance of children s access to difficult knowledge, particularly knowledge of sexuality
• explore and develop Foucault s work on the relationship between childhood and sexuality
• identify the impact of these discourses on adults understanding of childhood, and the tension that exists between their own perceptions of sexual knowledge, and the perceptions of children
• reconceptualise children s education around sexuality.

Innocence, Knowledge and the Construction of Childhood" is essential reading for both undergraduate and postgraduate students undertaking courses in education, particularly with a focus on early childhood or primary teaching, as well as in other disciplines such as sociology, gender and sexuality studies, and cultural studies.

Ethno-national conflict is one of the central issues of modern politics. Despite the emergence of approaches to managing it, from nation-building to territorial autonomy, in recent years, the application of these approaches has been uneven. Old conflicts persist and new ones continually emerge. The authors of this book contend that what is needed to drive forward the theory and practice of ethno-national conflict management is a more nuanced understanding of ethnicity and nationalism. The book addresses this issue by linking theories of ethnicity and nationalism to theories of conflict management. Its contributors share a common goal of demonstrating that a nuanced understanding of ethnicity and nationalism can beneficially inform conflict management in theory and practice. To do so, they analyse both hot and cold conflict zones, as well as cases that have been important in the development of the most widely-used conflict management models. The book is aimed at those interested in the theory and practice of ethno-national conflict management as well as the study of ethnicity and nationalism. It is well-suited for undergraduate and advanced research students, experts and policy-makers. This book was originally published as a special issue of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics.

The landscape of early childhood education and care is changing. Governments world-wide are assuming increasing authority in relation to child-rearing in the years before school entry, beyond the traditional role in assisting parents to do the best they can by their children. As part of a social agenda aimed at forming citizens well prepared to play an active part in a globalised knowledge economy, the idea of 'early learning' expresses the necessity of engaging caregivers right from the start of children's lives. Nichols, Rowsell, Rainbird, and Nixon investigate this trend over three years, in two countries, and three contrasting regions, by setting themselves the task of tracing every service and agent offering resources under the banner of early learning. Far from a dry catalogue, the study involves in-depth ethnographic research in fascinating spaces such as a church-run centre for African refugee women and children, a state-of-the-art community library and an Australian country town. Included is an unprecedented inventory of an entire suburban mall. Richly visually documented, the study employs emerging methods such as Google-mapping to trace the travels of actual parents as they search for particular resources. Each chapter features a context investigated in this large, international study: the library, the mall, the clinic, and the church. The author team unravels new spaces and new networks at work in early childhood literacy and development.