A focal point of early childhood education is how young children build knowledge and the ways that practitioners, parents and carers can help them to do so. Many adults find it challenging to identify what knowledge young children are building and how they do so, making it difficult to support young children's learning and development in the most effective ways. This essential guide will help you to identify and develop young children's knowledge and understanding in early years settings, not only in terms of statutory requirements but far beyond them. Building Knowledge in Early Childhood Education draws on empirical research findings from the Young Children As Researchers (YCAR) project to examine everyday activities and reveal the means that young children use to build knowledge and understanding, as well as exploring the similarities between learning behaviours in early childhood and adult life. Interweaving everyday activities in practice with research and theory, this book covers: how young children construct knowledge; learning, problem-solving and exploring; concepts and conceptualising in early childhood; evidence-based decision-making; how young children behave as researchers. Offering practical advice and suggestions to create opportunities that identify and facilitate young children's own constructions of knowledge and understanding, this book is essential reading for practitioners, students and all those interested in the theories surrounding young children as researchers.

In spite of our apparently connected global environment, people are becoming less connected. Digital communication leads to fewer face-to-face engagements, and many young children are separated from their parents for extended periods. The post-truth phenomenon has resulted in mistrust between policymakers and the people they serve, whilst increased immigration has led to some rich countries adopting a protectionist stance that transforms collaboration into separatism. At its 2014 meeting, the European Early Childhood Education Research Association's Young Children's Perspectives Special Interest Group considered how these issues were affecting young children, particularly the many thousands entering Europe at that time as refugees and migrants escaping conflict in their home countries. Many of those displaced young children found themselves situated on the margins of their new contexts. The feeling of being 'othered' can be existential for any young child experiencing liminality, yet a sense of belonging is important for young children's well-being and development of identity: the feeling of belonging lies at the core of social inclusion. This book, the idea for which arose out of this meeting, is drawn from leading edge empirical studies, and reveals the diverse experiences of young children's marginalisation. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Early Childhood Education Research Journal.

Based on a rich seam of research evidence, this book leverages value in engaging with scientific enquiry to further understanding of young children's emotional experiences. Early childhood development has featured increasingly prominently on international policymakers' agenda in recent years. Yet whilst policy foregrounds economic imperatives including academic attainment, school readiness, and time-bound outcomes, similar attention has not been afforded to the potential value of nourishing affective engagements that may secure 'emotional capital' for infants and young children. This collection from the field of early childhood is therefore timely. Its chapters are based on empirical evidence derived from contemporary scientific studies, and address challenges and opportunities inherent in young children's emotional experiences in diverse twenty-first century early childhood education and care contexts. The authors provoke debate, discussion, and critique, and they ask significant questions of the policymakers, practitioners, and carers who may influence young children's lives and their emotional experiences. The findings that are presented in the chapters indicate overall that a test-based approach may detract from young children's emotional development as well as the positive affective experiences in early childhood which have potential to provide an important foundation for a fulfilling life. This book was originally published as a special issue of Early Child Development and Care.

Based on a rich seam of research evidence, this book leverages value in engaging with scientific enquiry to further understanding of young children's emotional experiences. Early childhood development has featured increasingly prominently on international policymakers' agenda in recent years. Yet whilst policy foregrounds economic imperatives including academic attainment, school readiness, and time-bound outcomes, similar attention has not been afforded to the potential value of nourishing affective engagements that may secure 'emotional capital' for infants and young children. This collection from the field of early childhood is therefore timely. Its chapters are based on empirical evidence derived from contemporary scientific studies, and address challenges and opportunities inherent in young children's emotional experiences in diverse twenty-first century early childhood education and care contexts. The authors provoke debate, discussion, and critique, and they ask significant questions of the policymakers, practitioners, and carers who may influence young children's lives and their emotional experiences. The findings that are presented in the chapters indicate overall that a test-based approach may detract from young children's emotional development as well as the positive affective experiences in early childhood which have potential to provide an important foundation for a fulfilling life. This book was originally published as a special issue of Early Child Development and Care.

In spite of our apparently connected global environment, people are becoming less connected. Digital communication leads to fewer face-to-face engagements, and many young children are separated from their parents for extended periods. The post-truth phenomenon has resulted in mistrust between policymakers and the people they serve, whilst increased immigration has led to some rich countries adopting a protectionist stance that transforms collaboration into separatism. At its 2014 meeting, the European Early Childhood Education Research Association's Young Children's Perspectives Special Interest Group considered how these issues were affecting young children, particularly the many thousands entering Europe at that time as refugees and migrants escaping conflict in their home countries. Many of those displaced young children found themselves situated on the margins of their new contexts. The feeling of being 'othered' can be existential for any young child experiencing liminality, yet a sense of belonging is important for young children's well-being and development of identity: the feeling of belonging lies at the core of social inclusion. This book, the idea for which arose out of this meeting, is drawn from leading edge empirical studies, and reveals the diverse experiences of young children's marginalisation. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Early Childhood Education Research Journal.

A focal point of early childhood education is how young children build knowledge and the ways that practitioners, parents and carers can help them to do so. Many adults find it challenging to identify what knowledge young children are building and how they do so, making it difficult to support young children's learning and development in the most effective ways. This essential guide will help you to identify and develop young children's knowledge and understanding in early years settings, not only in terms of statutory requirements but far beyond them. Building Knowledge in Early Childhood Education draws on empirical research findings from the Young Children As Researchers (YCAR) project to examine everyday activities and reveal the means that young children use to build knowledge and understanding, as well as exploring the similarities between learning behaviours in early childhood and adult life. Interweaving everyday activities in practice with research and theory, this book covers: how young children construct knowledge; learning, problem-solving and exploring; concepts and conceptualising in early childhood; evidence-based decision-making; how young children behave as researchers. Offering practical advice and suggestions to create opportunities that identify and facilitate young children's own constructions of knowledge and understanding, this book is essential reading for practitioners, students and all those interested in the theories surrounding young children as researchers.

Written to commemorate 30 years since the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), The Routledge International Handbook of Young Children's Rights reflects upon the status of children aged 0-8 years around the world, whether they are respected or neglected, and how we may move forward. With contributions from international experts and emerging authorities on children's rights, Murray, Blue Swadener and Smith have produced this highly significant textbook on young children's rights globally. Containing sections on policy, along with rights to protection, provision and participation for young children, this book combines discussions of children's rights and early childhood development, and investigates the crucial yet frequently overlooked link between the two. The authors examine how policy, practice and research could be utilised to address the barriers to universal respect for children, to create a safer and more enriching world for them to live and flourish in. The Routledge International Handbook of Young Children's Rights is an essential resource for students and academics in early childhood education, social work and paediatrics, as well as for researchers, policymakers, leaders and practitioners involved in the provision of children's services and paedeatric healthcare, and international organisations with an interest in or ability to influence national or global policies on children's rights.

Diverse international perspectives on the ways in which young children's learning and care may be supported converge in this book. Traversing the field of early childhood education and care from its established philosophical underpinnings to 21st century research, policies, and practices, the contributions to this volume draw together past and present discourses as a basis for shaping future trajectories. In spite of a growing international consensus on the strong influence of early childhood experiences on lifetime outcomes, the nineteen chapters reveal contemporary early childhood pedagogy as a collection of spaces characterised by plurality, complexity, and dissonance. These characteristics signal the importance of recognising early childhood pedagogies: multiple models of practice for the many diverse learning and care contexts that have the capacity to value young children as individuals and enable each to flourish now and throughout their lives. Moreover, such characteristics disrupt notions that a single 'optimal' early childhood pedagogy is either possible or desirable. This exciting global collection of empirical research reports and discursive papers provides inspiration to spark new reflections, fresh debates, and innovative endeavours among early childhood students, practitioners, researchers, and policymakers around the world. This book was originally published as a special issue of Early Child Development and Care.

Diverse international perspectives on the ways in which young children's learning and care may be supported converge in this book. Traversing the field of early childhood education and care from its established philosophical underpinnings to 21st century research, policies, and practices, the contributions to this volume draw together past and present discourses as a basis for shaping future trajectories. In spite of a growing international consensus on the strong influence of early childhood experiences on lifetime outcomes, the nineteen chapters reveal contemporary early childhood pedagogy as a collection of spaces characterised by plurality, complexity, and dissonance. These characteristics signal the importance of recognising early childhood pedagogies: multiple models of practice for the many diverse learning and care contexts that have the capacity to value young children as individuals and enable each to flourish now and throughout their lives. Moreover, such characteristics disrupt notions that a single 'optimal' early childhood pedagogy is either possible or desirable. This exciting global collection of empirical research reports and discursive papers provides inspiration to spark new reflections, fresh debates, and innovative endeavours among early childhood students, practitioners, researchers, and policymakers around the world. This book was originally published as a special issue of Early Child Development and Care.

Papers from a 2007 conference marking 21 years of the Friends of Whithorn Trust. Contents: Introduction (Alex Woolf); Archaeology and the dossier of a saint: Whithorn excavations 1984-2001 (Jonathan Wooding); The Latinus stone: Whithorn's earliest Christian monument (Katherine Forsyth); Early Christian cemeteries in southwest Scotland (Dave C. Cowley); Christianity in northern Britain in the late-Roman period (Mike McCarthy); Britain and the continent in the fifth and sixth centuries: the evidence of Ninian (Ian Wood).