Situated against a backdrop of multiple global pandemics—COVID-19, racial injustice and violence, inequitable resource distribution, political insurrections and unrest—this timely and critical volume argues for a divestment in white privilege and an investment in anti-racist pedagogies and practice across early childhood contexts of research, policy, and teaching and learning. Featuring established scholar-practitioners alongside emerging voices, chapters explore key issues around equitable and inclusive practices for young children, covering topics such as multilingualism and multicultural practices of immigrant communities, language varieties, and dialects across the Black diaspora, queer pedagogies, and play at the intersection of race, gender, disability, and language. Thoughtfully and compellingly written, each chapter offers an overview of the issue, the theoretical framework and critical context surrounding it and implications for practice.

Situated against a backdrop of multiple global pandemics—COVID-19, racial injustice and violence, inequitable resource distribution, political insurrections and unrest—this timely and critical volume argues for a divestment in white privilege and an investment in anti-racist pedagogies and practice across early childhood contexts of research, policy, and teaching and learning. Featuring established scholar-practitioners alongside emerging voices, chapters explore key issues around equitable and inclusive practices for young children, covering topics such as multilingualism and multicultural practices of immigrant communities, language varieties, and dialects across the Black diaspora, queer pedagogies, and play at the intersection of race, gender, disability, and language. Thoughtfully and compellingly written, each chapter offers an overview of the issue, the theoretical framework and critical context surrounding it and implications for practice.

This collection, edited by leaders in the field of early childhood and multicultural education, is a valuable resource for those studying and working with young children. Chapters emphasize the relationship between theory, research, and practice, and provide illustrations of equitable and inclusive practices that move us toward social justice in the critical field of early childhood education. Drawing from the current literature on ability, class, culture, ethnicity, gender, languages, race, and sexual orientation, the book presents a forward-looking account of how diversity could improve the educational experience of children from birth to grade three.

This collection, edited by leaders in the field of early childhood and multicultural education, is a valuable resource for those studying and working with young children. Chapters emphasize the relationship between theory, research, and practice, and provide illustrations of equitable and inclusive practices that move us toward social justice in the critical field of early childhood education. Drawing from the current literature on ability, class, culture, ethnicity, gender, languages, race, and sexual orientation, the book presents a forward-looking account of how diversity could improve the educational experience of children from birth to grade three.

The author draws on his own extensive research in urban classrooms to present a grounded theoretical model of young childrens understanding of picture storybooks. Advancing a much broader and deeper theory of literary understanding, the author suggests that children respond in five different ways during picture storybook readalounds; that these responses reveal that children are engaged in five different types of literary meaning-making; and that these five types of meaning-making are instantiations of five foundational aspects of literary understanding.