This book explores the narratives of a group of four-year-old children in a composition project in an Australian early learning centre. The participants, centre staff and a composer, Stephen Leek, contributed a number of music sessions for the children, including five original songs. The book showcases young children's communicative ability and sensitivity to wider issues. The staff in the centre have a strongly voiced philosophy that is enacted through arts-based pedagogy and incorporates significant themes including a respect for Aboriginal culture and custodial responsibility towards a sustainable future for the earth. Examples of adult and children's ideas are illustrated through music making, singing, dancing, words, drawings and paintings, which provide insights into a world where children are viewed as active citizens and the arts have rights. The book describes the context of the centre, the history of projects and details one project as an example of "lifeworthy learning".

This book has been designed to add to the study and experience of early childhood ideas and experience in an international context. The focus is Australia and China with three research projects explored to provide insights into the history and development of early childhood education in each country. The work offers a consideration of the complexity of early childhood education in local and global contexts, at a time when global relationships can benefit from moving beyond better cultural understandings to greater connections and reciprocity. Each study has accompanying empirical data to support the interpretations offered. The first part of the book presents historical context and examines policy issues, the growth of the early childhood education workforce and the development of curriculum approaches in each country. The two projects that follow describe teachers' perspectives of children's learning and an in-depth study of a collaborative higher education program that details stakeholder experiences. By studying participant attitudes and ideas in each country we have been able to share early childhood knowledge and discuss perspectives through early childhood languages, like perspectives on the role, importance and nature of play and learning.

Musical Childhoods is a culmination of more than a decade of research driven by the fact that music has been neglected in early childhood programs in favour of literacy and numeracy. Recent research has identified a connection between academic performance and musical programs and this has given music a renewed status in many schools. This book promotes the idea of children's competence in the use of the language of music and argues that all children have a right to participate in musical discovery and celebrates children's engagement with meaningful and disparate experiences in music. Written by leading practitioners and researchers in the field, this book seeks to reaffirm children's communicative competence when exposed to high quality musical experience, provide new perspectives on children's ability to engage with music in many diverse forms and explore and promote the role of the musician as an artist and teacher. The book is structured into three parts: The theoretical overview The children, the musicians and the music The research through the eyes of the protagonist and looking into the future Early childhood students, researchers and academics with a specific interest in music and musicality will find this an insightful read.

Musical Childhoods is a culmination of more than a decade of research driven by the fact that music has been neglected in early childhood programs in favour of literacy and numeracy. Recent research has identified a connection between academic performance and musical programs and this has given music a renewed status in many schools. This book promotes the idea of children's competence in the use of the language of music and argues that all children have a right to participate in musical discovery and celebrates children's engagement with meaningful and disparate experiences in music. Written by leading practitioners and researchers in the field, this book seeks to reaffirm children's communicative competence when exposed to high quality musical experience, provide new perspectives on children's ability to engage with music in many diverse forms and explore and promote the role of the musician as an artist and teacher. The book is structured into three parts: The theoretical overview The children, the musicians and the music The research through the eyes of the protagonist and looking into the future Early childhood students, researchers and academics with a specific interest in music and musicality will find this an insightful read.

This book has been designed to add to the study and experience of early childhood ideas and experience in an international context. The focus is Australia and China with three research projects explored to provide insights into the history and development of early childhood education in each country. The work offers a consideration of the complexity of early childhood education in local and global contexts, at a time when global relationships can benefit from moving beyond better cultural understandings to greater connections and reciprocity. Each study has accompanying empirical data to support the interpretations offered. The first part of the book presents historical context and examines policy issues, the growth of the early childhood education workforce and the development of curriculum approaches in each country. The two projects that follow describe teachers' perspectives of children's learning and an in-depth study of a collaborative higher education program that details stakeholder experiences. By studying participant attitudes and ideas in each country we have been able to share early childhood knowledge and discuss perspectives through early childhood languages, like perspectives on the role, importance and nature of play and learning.