Neoliberalism, with its worldview of competition, choice and calculation, its economisation of everything, and its will to govern has 'sunk its roots deep' into Early Childhood Education and Care. This book considers its deeply detrimental impacts upon young children, families, settings and the workforce. Through an exploration of possibilities for resistance and refusal, and reflection on the significance of the coronavirus pandemic, Roberts-Holmes and Moss provide hope that neoliberalism's current hegemony can be successfully contested. The book provides a critical introduction to neoliberalism and three closely related and influential concepts - Human Capital theory, Public Choice theory and New Public Management - as well as an overview of the impact of neoliberalism on compulsory education, in particular through the Global Education Reform Movement. With its main focus on Early Childhood Education and Care, this book argues that while neoliberalism is a very powerful force, it is 'deeply problematic, eminently resistible and eventually replaceable' - and that there are indeed alternatives. Neoliberalism and Early Childhood Education is an insightful supplement to the studies of students and researchers in Early Childhood Education and Sociology of Education, and is also highly relevant to policy makers.

In an era where assessment mandates tend to minimize or dismiss individual differences and creativity, resulting in punitive outcomes or inertia, this essential guide provides teachers with a collaborative approach to assessment that emphasizes the importance of bringing children and families into the process. Now in its second edition, Assessment of Young Children explores both standardized and authentic assessment, work sampling systems, and observation skills. Fully updated with current standards and research, this new edition also features an enhanced focus on trauma-informed practices, culturally and linguistically diverse learners, and family involvement. Lively and engaging, chapters help readers cultivate developmentally appropriate practice, create appropriate expectations, examine and celebrate children's work, interact in groups, and improve their reflective teaching. Accounts of real experiences from children, families, teachers, and administrators provide on-the-ground models of assessment strategies and demonstrate how children are affected. Exploring a variety of ways to observe and assess young children in their natural environments, this critical volume encourages an assessment strategy where the child remains the focus and collaboration with children, families, and colleagues creates an image - not a diagnosis - of the child that is empowering rather than constraining.

This text responds to the growing need for speech-language pathologists in school settings by asking how factors including people, work, pay, opportunities for promotion, and supervision impact the overall job satisfaction of school-based speech-language pathologists. Drawing on data from a quantitative study conducted in schools in the US, the text foregrounds the experiences and perspectives of speech-language pathologists working in the public school sector, and illustrates the critical role of effective and supportive educational leadership and administration in ensuring effective recruitment, retention, and job satisfaction amongst these much needed professionals. The text highlights growing responsibilities of speech-language pathologists in schools and considers recruitment and challenges in the sector can be remedied by greater understanding of how job satisfaction relates to speech-language pathologists' experiences and perspectives on pay, work, opportunities for promotion, and support from a supervisor. This short text is aimed at researchers, scholars, and administrators in meeting the growing needs of children and students with speech and language difficulties in Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary education settings . The text will be particularly valuable for school leaders looking to support speech-language pathologists in their setting.

Finding Quality Early Childcare is a tool for parents to use in selecting quality childcare that best meets the needs of their family. This book reviews foundational elements of childcare, such as health and safety features, while explaining educational strategies, including styles of teaching and daily classroom activities. Finding Quality Early Childcare also covers types of specialized childcare, such as infant care and childcare for children with special needs, reviews Transitional Kindergarten, and discusses when children are ready to transition from preschool to Kindergarten.

This accessible book provides evidence-based guidelines on dyscalculia, offering a thorough explanation of the science behind the disorder. It combines this theoretical framework with practical recommendations, offering interventions for managing the condition at home and school and avoiding potential behavioural consequences. Written in a straightforward style, this book provides a concise summary of relevant research to empower the reader to take an informed and positive approach to dyscalculia and those who live with it. The internationally based team of contributors examine the different models that explain the construct of dyscalculia, looking at definitions and theories alongside signs, symptoms and diagnosis. Chapters also explore how to communicate diagnosis to peers, possible cultural differences and sensitivities when related to mathematics education and dyscalculia and the importance of maintaining a proactive attitude when working with children with dyscalculia. Understanding Dyscalculia is essential reading for parents and practitioners in clinical and educational psychology, education professionals and students and researchers of special educational needs, educational psychology and counselling psychology.

One of a series of practical references for teachers, this handbook provides general information on the background of the early childhood curriculum in the United States. It also contains current information on publications, standards and special materials for the curriculum, and is designed to be adapted to suit particular schools.

Demonstrating that public health and prevention program development is as much art as science, this book brings together expert program developers to offer practical guidance and principles in developing effective behavior-change curricula. Feinberg and the team of experienced contributors cover evidence-based programs addressing a range of physical, mental, and behavioral health problems, including ones targeting families, specific populations, and developmental stages. The contributors describe their own professional journeys and decisions in creating, refining, testing, and disseminating a range of programs and strategies. Readers will learn about selecting change-promoting targets based on existing research; developing and creating effective and engaging content; considering implementation and dissemination contexts in the development process; and revising, refining, expanding, abbreviating, and adapting a curriculum across multiple iterations. Designing Evidence-Based Public Health and Prevention Programs is essential reading for prevention scientists, prevention practitioners, and program developers in community agencies. It also provides a unique resource for graduate students and postgraduates in family sciences, developmental psychology, clinical psychology, social work, education, nursing, public health, and counselling.

This book places family at the centre of discussions about migration and migrant life, seeing migrants not as isolated individuals, but as relational beings whose familial connections influence their migration decisions and trajectories. Particularly prioritising the voices of children and young people, the book investigates everyday family practices to illuminate how migrants and their significant others do family, parenting or being a child within a family, both transnationally and locally. Themes covered include undocumented status, unaccompanied children's asylum seeking, adolescents' "dark sides", second generation return migration, home-making, belonging, nationality/citizenship, peer relations and kinship, and good mothering. The book deploys a wide range of methodological approaches and tools (multi-sited ethnographies, participant observation, interviews and creative methods) to capture the ordinary, spatially extended and interpersonal dynamics of migrant family lives. Drawing on a range of cross-cutting disciplines, geographical areas and diversity of levels and types of experiences on part of the editors and authors, this book will be of interest to researchers across the fields of migration, childhood, youth and family studies.

It is important that early educators view sensitive topics not as problems, but as subjects that are part of our global society. Early educators need to engage children in conversations in which to consider and share diverse perspectives. Early educators also should examine their own experiences when addressing these serious issues. This volume contains chapters that invite conversations about sensitive issues to help educators, children and families use real-life experiences to construct knowledge about their world and other people.

The role of men in early childhood education and care is crucial for the future of all children growing up in a gender sensitive world. Achieving greater diversity and gender balance in the workforce has proved a challenging goal, despite concerted efforts on the part of individuals, institutions, and governments around the world. Many men remain reluctant to enter the profession, and once they choose this work many leave. This book explores how men in the field make their career decisions to remain in or leave the profession. Taking a broad international perspective and exploring the role of gender in these career decisions, contributors from around the globe unpack how gender concepts influence men's career trajectories. Through their collaborative research, the team of 17 gender and early childhood researchers investigate various critical and relevant factors such as professionalisation, workplace environment, leadership, day to day interactions in the workplace, societal considerations, internal motivations, agency, masculinities, and critical moments in career decision making. Using cultural, racial, ethnic, and social class lenses to examine men's career decisions over their professional lives, the contributors' unique approach uncovers the complexity of the issue and offers evidence-based recommendations for policy both on national and local levels. These include practical suggestions to directors and managers who care about achieving a gender-mixed workforce. Accessible and enlightening, this is a unique resource for scholars, policymakers, and any others in the education community who support boosting the inclusion of men in early childhood education.

Interdisciplinary and intersectional in emphasis, the Routledge Companion to Motherhood brings together essays on current intellectual themes, issues, and debates, while also creating a foundation for future scholarship and study as the field of Motherhood Studies continues to develop globally. This Routledge Companion is the first extensive collection on the wide-ranging topics, themes, issues, and debates that ground the intellectual work being done on motherhood. Global in scope and including a range of disciplinary perspectives, including anthropology, literature, communication studies, sociology, women's and gender studies, history, and economics, this volume introduces the foundational topics and ideas in motherhood, delineates the diversity and complexity of mothering, and also stimulates dialogue among scholars and students approaching from divergent backgrounds and intellectual perspectives. This will become a foundational text for academics in Women's and Gender Studies and interdisciplinary researchers interested in this important, complex and rapidly growing topic. Scholars of psychology, sociology or public policy, and activists in both university and workplace settings interested in motherhood and mothering will find it an invaluable guide.

This innovative and user-friendly book uses a design thinking approach to examine transformative learning and liminality in physical education. Covering theory and practice, it introduces the important idea of 'threshold concepts' for physical education, helping physical educators to introduce those concepts into curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. The book invites us to reflect on what is learned in, through and about physical education - to identify its core threshold concepts. Once identified, the book explains how the learning of threshold concepts can be planned using principles of pedagogical translation for all four learning domains (cognitive, psychomotor, affective and social). The book is arranged into three key sections which walk the reader through the underpinning concepts, use movement case studies to explore and generate threshold concepts in physical education using design thinking approach and, finally, provide a guiding Praxis Matrix for PE Threshold Concepts that can be used for physical educators across a range of school and physical activity learning contexts. Outlining fundamental theory and useful, practical teaching and coaching advice, this book is invaluable reading for all PE teacher educators, coach educators, and any advanced student, coach or teacher looking to enrich their knowledge and professional practice.

This vital volume advances understanding of how parenting from childhood to adolescence changes or remains the same in a variety of sociodemographic, psychological, and cultural contexts, providing a truly global understanding of parenting across cultures. Through the Parenting Across Cultures project, the editors unveil findings from this hugely important comparative longitudinal study of parents and children in China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States. The volume offers insight into trajectories of parenting, exploring parents' warmth, control, rules setting, and knowledge of children's activities and whereabouts. Each chapter is authored by a contributor native to the country examined, guaranteeing an authentic emic perspective, and together the chapters provide a broader sample that is more generalizable to a wider range of the world's population than is typical in most parenting research. Parenting Across Cultures From Childhood to Adolescence is essential reading for researchers and students of parenting, psychology, human development, family studies, sociology, and cultural anthropology, as well as professionals working with families.

Learn how to support developmentally rich language learning environments during a child's first eight years of life! This book demonstrates how to build foundations for a strong communication system, distinguish typical and disordered speech and language, and develop a deep understanding of the brain and language development connection. Featuring clear guidance on how to work with parents and speech-language pathologists, educators will find easy to implement strategies for supporting healthy communication and navigating any stumbling blocks in the early childhood classroom.

The focus of this book is on different aspects of leadership and governess for learning in the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector, which serves children aged 1-5 years. Internationally, the discourse on the ECEC sector is interwoven with the discourse on early intervention, where ECEC is viewed as laying the foundation for lifelong learning, eliminating child poverty, and fostering social inclusion within an increasingly diverse population.

Mobile learning is a primary learning format in the education of young children from birth through 6th grade. This format has been found to have a positive impact on the academic achievement, self-efficacy, motivation, and learning attitudes of students, including those with special needs (Ciampa, 2014; Hwang, 2014; Nikou & Economides, 2018; Xie, Basham, Marino & Rice, 2018). In both formal and informal learning contexts, mobile learning affords opportunities to innovate and explore new forms of authentic experiences, meaning-making, and creativity with untethered technology (Choi, Land, & Zimmerman, 2018; Schuck, Kearney & Burden, 2017). This edited book acts as a springboard to expand discussions surrounding how mobiles might best be situated in contexts relating to young children. With a focus on early childhood and elementary settings, this book both expands the definition of mobiles to encompass digital-physical tools (e.g. Osmo, probeware) and wearables. It also provides insight into how intentional integration of mobiles supports the development and practice of both in-service and preservice teachers working with students in early childhood and elementary settings.

This vital volume advances understanding of how parenting from childhood to adolescence changes or remains the same in a variety of sociodemographic, psychological, and cultural contexts, providing a truly global understanding of parenting across cultures. Through the Parenting Across Cultures project, the editors unveil findings from this hugely important comparative longitudinal study of parents and children in China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States. The volume offers insight into trajectories of parenting, exploring parents' warmth, control, rules setting, and knowledge of children's activities and whereabouts. Each chapter is authored by a contributor native to the country examined, guaranteeing an authentic emic perspective, and together the chapters provide a broader sample that is more generalizable to a wider range of the world's population than is typical in most parenting research. Parenting Across Cultures From Childhood to Adolescence is essential reading for researchers and students of parenting, psychology, human development, family studies, sociology, and cultural anthropology, as well as professionals working with families.

Demonstrating that public health and prevention program development is as much art as science, this book brings together expert program developers to offer practical guidance and principles in developing effective behavior-change curricula. Feinberg and the team of experienced contributors cover evidence-based programs addressing a range of physical, mental, and behavioral health problems, including ones targeting families, specific populations, and developmental stages. The contributors describe their own professional journeys and decisions in creating, refining, testing, and disseminating a range of programs and strategies. Readers will learn about selecting change-promoting targets based on existing research; developing and creating effective and engaging content; considering implementation and dissemination contexts in the development process; and revising, refining, expanding, abbreviating, and adapting a curriculum across multiple iterations. Designing Evidence-Based Public Health and Prevention Programs is essential reading for prevention scientists, prevention practitioners, and program developers in community agencies. It also provides a unique resource for graduate students and postgraduates in family sciences, developmental psychology, clinical psychology, social work, education, nursing, public health, and counselling.

This text critically examines changes in Ghanaian language and literacy policy following independence in 1957 to consider its impacts on early literacy teaching. By adopting a postcolonial theoretical perspective, the text interrogates the logic behind policy changes which have prioritised English, local language, or biliteracy. It draws on data from interviews with teachers and researcher observation to demonstrate how policies have influenced teaching and learning. Dr Osseo-Asare's findings inform the development of a conceptual framework which highlights the socio-cultural factors that impact the literacy and biliteracy of young children in Ghana, offering solutions to help teachers combat the challenges of frequent policy changes. This timely monograph will prove to be an essential resource not only for researchers working on education policies, teacher education, and English-language learning in postcolonial Ghana but also for those looking to identify the thematic and methodological nuances of studying literacy and education in postcolonial contexts.

The world of education is an amazing and rewarding world to be in, but there is a sense among many that work within it that there is something not quite right, that all is not well. In this book, Greg Bottrill explores how he ensures that, in his Early Years setting, continuous provision enables children. He shares his Early Years pedagogy through the '3Ms' and explains how to apply these in the classroom. Greg also explores the definition of play - what it is and what it isn't - and the challenging role of the Early Years teacher. This book shares good practice in: early reading and the joy of reading early writing development boys writing the nature of outdoor play and how to make this truly 'outdoor' the role of parents in child development mathematics in play when and how to do intervention work with children how to get Headteachers and centre managers on board.

In this significantly revised second edition of Bronwyn Hayward's acclaimed book Children Citizenship and Environment, she examines how students, with teachers, parents, and other activists, can learn to take effective action to confront the complex drivers of the current climate crisis including: economic and social injustice, colonialism and racism. The global school strikes demand adults, governments, and businesses take far-reaching action in response to our climate crisis. The school strikes also remind us why this important youthful activism urgently needs the support of all generations. The #SchoolStrike edition of Children Citizenship and Environment includes all new contributions by youth, indigenous and disability activists, researchers and educators: Raven Cretney, Mehedi Hasan, Sylvia Nissen, Jocelyn Papprill, Kate Prendergast, Kera Sherwood O' Regan, Mia Sutherland, Amanda Thomas, Sara Tolbert, Sarah Thomson, Josiah Tualamali'i, and Amelia Woods. As controversial, yet ultimately hopeful, as it was when first published, Bronwyn Hayward develops her 'SEEDS' model of 'strong ecological citizenship' for a school strike generation. The SEEDS of citizenship education encourage students to develop skills for; Social agency, Environmental education, Embedded justice, Decentred deliberation and Self-transcendence. This approach to citizenship supports young citizens' democratic imagination and develops their 'handprint' for social justice. This ground-breaking book will be of interest to a wide audience, in particular teachers and professionals who work in Environmental Citizenship Education, as well as students and community activists with an interest in environmental change, democracy and intergenerational justice.

This reflection on Paulo Freire's seminal volume, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, examines the lessons learnt from Freire and their place in contemporary pedagogical theory and practice. Freire's work has inspired ground-breaking research which Vandenbroeck has collated, demonstrating the ongoing influence on early childhood educators. Vandenbroeck brings together an international cohort of early childhood experts to present cross-cultural perspectives on the impact of Freire's research on education around the globe. This book covers discussions on: The background to and impact of Freire's work Alternative approaches to supporting child development Pedagogical approaches in Portugal, South Africa, Japan, New Zealand and the United States Vandenbroeck concludes with a vision for theorising and implementing emancipatory practice in early childhood education in contexts of neoliberalism. An insightful resource for academics and students in the field of Early Childhood Education and Care, Revisiting Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed is a benchmark of the progress made in the field over the last half a century.

Have you ever wondered about the origins of the kindergarten and the influence of Froebel on early years practice? What did Froebel mean by a garden for children? Why did he believe that play is central in young children's learning? Bringing the Froebel Approach to your Early Years Practice looks at the founder of the kindergarten and his profound influence on provision and practice for young children today. The Froebelian approach is not a method but includes distinctive principles which shape and guide practice. This new edition has been fully updated in line with the revised EYFS and includes: extra material on using the approach with children of different ages and the role of the adult a discussion of key Froebelian principles such as play, imagination, creativity, learning through self-activity and making connections an examination of block play and how this can be developed in contemporary settings Froebel's ideas on nature and outdoor play and why these are fundamental to young children's learning how Froebel used movement, song, rhythm and rhyme to provide key learning experiences With examples of innovative practice and ideas for reflection, this convenient guide will help practitioners and students fully understand what the Froebel approach can offer their setting and children.

In light of the latest research from cognitive and developmental psychology, this key text explores reasoning, rationality, and democracy, considering the unique nature of each and their relationship to each other. Broadening our understanding from the development of reasoning and rationality in individuals to encompass social considerations of argumentation and democracy, the book connects psychological literature to philosophy, law, political science, and educational policy. Based on psychological research, Moshman sets out a system of deliberative democracy that promotes collaborative reasoning, rational institutions such as science and law, education aimed at the promotion of rationality, and intellectual freedom for all. Also including the biological bases of logic, metacognition, and collaborative reasoning, Moshman argues that, despite systematic flaws in human reasoning, there are reasons for a cautiously optimistic assessment of the potential for human rationality and the prospects for democracy. Reasoning, Argumentation, and Deliberative Democracy will be essential reading for all researchers of thinking and reasoning from psychology, philosophy, and education.