This book considers the diffusion and transfer of educational ideas through local and transcontinental networks within and across five socio-political spaces. The authors examine the social, political, and historical preconditions for the transfer of "new education" theory and practices in each period, place, and school, along with the networks of ideas and experts that supported this. The authors use historical methods to examine the schools and to pursue the story of the circulation of new ideas in education. In particular, chapters investigate how educational ideas develop within contexts, travel across boundaries, and are adapted in new contexts.

Taking up a little-known story of education, schooling, and missionary endeavor, Helen May, Baljit Kaur, and Larry Prochner focus on the experiences of very young 'native' children in three British colonies. In missionary settlements across the northern part of the North Island of New Zealand, Upper Canada, and British-controlled India, experimental British ventures for placing young children of the poor in infant schools were simultaneously transported to and adopted for all three colonies. From the 1820s to the 1850s, this transplantation of Britain's infant schools to its distant colonies was deemed a radical and enlightened tool that was meant to hasten the conversion of 'heathen' peoples by missionaries to Christianity and to European modes of civilization. The intertwined legacies of European exploration, enlightenment ideals, education, and empire building, the authors argue, provided a springboard for British colonial and missionary activity across the globe during the nineteenth century. Informed by archival research and focused on the shared as well as unique aspects of the infant schools' colonial experience, Empire, Education, and Indigenous Childhoods illuminates both the pervasiveness of missionary education and the diverse contexts in which its attendant ideals were applied.

Taking up a little-known story of education, schooling, and missionary endeavor, Helen May, Baljit Kaur, and Larry Prochner focus on the experiences of very young 'native' children in three British colonies. In missionary settlements across the northern part of the North Island of New Zealand, Upper Canada, and British-controlled India, experimental British ventures for placing young children of the poor in infant schools were simultaneously transported to and adopted for all three colonies. From the 1820s to the 1850s, this transplantation of Britain's infant schools to its distant colonies was deemed a radical and enlightened tool that was meant to hasten the conversion of 'heathen' peoples by missionaries to Christianity and to European modes of civilization. The intertwined legacies of European exploration, enlightenment ideals, education, and empire building, the authors argue, provided a springboard for British colonial and missionary activity across the globe during the nineteenth century. Informed by archival research and focused on the shared as well as unique aspects of the infant schools' colonial experience, Empire, Education, and Indigenous Childhoods illuminates both the pervasiveness of missionary education and the diverse contexts in which its attendant ideals were applied.

This book presents research exploring the potential for postfoundational theories to revitalize discussions in early childhood education. In the past two decades, postfoundation theories (e.g., postmodern, poststructural, feminist, postcolonial, etc.) have revolutionized the field of early childhood education, but at the same time, little has been written about the value and potential of this movement within the context of Canada. Postfoundational theories have the potential to disrupt normalizing early childhood education discourses that create and maintain social inequities, and to respect differences and diversities. Given the importance of diversity in Canada, it seems relevant to explore further how postfoundational theories might transform early childhood education.

Learning to Teach Young Children provides you with the tools to critically engage with the key concepts and beliefs in early childhood education theory and practice. The book is organized around ten propositions that are explored in relation to 30 key questions, for example: - What does it mean to honour children's right to be different? - What does it mean to learn? - How can images of childhood be used as frames for practice? Original comic-book style illustrations are used to explore key theoretical concepts in an accessible and engaging way. The book also includes a companion website offering overviews of the key concepts covered in the book, supplementary information and references, reflective questions and case studies to support your learning.

This book considers the diffusion and transfer of educational ideas through local and transcontinental networks within and across five socio-political spaces. The authors examine the social, political, and historical preconditions for the transfer of "new education" theory and practices in each period, place, and school, along with the networks of ideas and experts that supported this. The authors use historical methods to examine the schools and to pursue the story of the circulation of new ideas in education. In particular, chapters investigate how educational ideas develop within contexts, travel across boundaries, and are adapted in new contexts.

This book presents research exploring the potential for postfoundational theories to revitalize discussions in early childhood education. In the past two decades, postfoundation theories (e.g., postmodern, poststructural, feminist, postcolonial, etc.) have revolutionized the field of early childhood education, but at the same time, little has been written about the value and potential of this movement within the context of Canada. Postfoundational theories have the potential to disrupt normalizing early childhood education discourses that create and maintain social inequities, and to respect differences and diversities. Given the importance of diversity in Canada, it seems relevant to explore further how postfoundational theories might transform early childhood education.

Learning to Teach Young Children provides you with the tools to critically engage with the key concepts and beliefs in early childhood education theory and practice. The book is organized around ten propositions that are explored in relation to 30 key questions, for example: - What does it mean to honour children's right to be different? - What does it mean to learn? - How can images of childhood be used as frames for practice? Original comic-book style illustrations are used to explore key theoretical concepts in an accessible and engaging way. The book also includes a companion website offering overviews of the key concepts covered in the book, supplementary information and references, reflective questions and case studies to support your learning.

Kindergarten Narratives on Froebelian Education showcases the latest scholarship and historical understandings concerning the casting of the kindergarten idea abroad: across cultures, continents and centuries. Each chapter reveals previously unknown narratives of intrepid endeavour, political pragmatism and pedagogical innovation that collectively provide insight into the transformation of Froebel's ideas on early education into a global phenomenon. Across global contexts, each chapter presents a case study of the ideas scattering abroad, illustrative of the movement of ideas, curricula and pedagogical change; in effect taking the kindergarten beyond the geographies and pedagogies of its German beginnings and borders. Chapters draw on historical examples of Froebelian education from The Netherlands, New Zealand, Japan, Sweden, the UK and the USA. In the journal History of Education in 2006, Froebelian history scholar Professor Kevin J. Brehony (1948-2013) lamented the 'relative neglect' of the history of early years education at the same time there was a heightened global social and political interest in educating the young child. In this book, an international team of contributors respond to Brehony's suggestion that historical perspectives can play a role in current debates and suggest ways historical narratives might inform policies and practices in twenty-first century early childhood education, care settings and contexts. Reconnecting past lessons and insights with present and future concerns for early education, young children and their place in society, this important collection also includes an historical timeline charting the spread of Froebelian education ideas and kindergartens across the world.

Kindergarten Narratives on Froebelian Education showcases the latest scholarship and historical understandings concerning the casting of the kindergarten idea abroad: across cultures, continents and centuries. Each chapter reveals previously unknown narratives of intrepid endeavour, political pragmatism and pedagogical innovation that collectively provide insight into the transformation of Froebel's ideas on early education into a global phenomenon. Across global contexts, each chapter presents a case study of the ideas scattering abroad, illustrative of the movement of ideas, curricula and pedagogical change; in effect taking the kindergarten beyond the geographies and pedagogies of its German beginnings and borders. Chapters draw on historical examples of Froebelian education from The Netherlands, New Zealand, Japan, Sweden, the UK and the USA. In the journal History of Education in 2006, Froebelian history scholar Professor Kevin J. Brehony (1948-2013) lamented the 'relative neglect' of the history of early years education at the same time there was a heightened global social and political interest in educating the young child. In this book, an international team of contributors respond to Brehony's suggestion that historical perspectives can play a role in current debates and suggest ways historical narratives might inform policies and practices in twenty-first century early childhood education, care settings and contexts. Reconnecting past lessons and insights with present and future concerns for early education, young children and their place in society, this important collection also includes an historical timeline charting the spread of Froebelian education ideas and kindergartens across the world.

In the early nineteenth century, governments introduced kindergartens and infant schools to give children a head start in life. These programs hinged on new visions of childhood that origin-ated in England and Europe, but what happened when they were exported to the colonies? This book unwinds the tangled threads of this history, from early infant schools in England to three Commonwealth countries - Canada, Australia, and New Zealand - where systems of educating young children were transplanted but adapted to suit local ideas, politics, and populations. This unique, comparative approach to the history of early childhood education provides fresh insight into how to reconcile educational theory and practice in an increasingly global world.

Shades of Globalization casts an ethnographic eye on the interplay between local and global influences on the organization and activities within three early childhood settings, each of which is located in a context of rapid social change. Stemming from a four-year study of early childhood thought and practice, each of the eight chapters touches on a different aspect of the three case study preschools, one each in India, South Africa, and an aboriginal community in Canada. The authors take a critical perspective on taken-for-granted assumptions about what constitutes the most appropriate preschool experience for children, querying for example, the meaning of school readiness within local communities. This book will appeal to those who have an interest in the diversity of children's lives and preschool experiences throughout the world - education and social policy makers, teacher educators, teachers, pre-service student teachers, day-care workers, parents, community leaders, governmental and non-governmental organizations and consultants, early childhood program planners and evaluators, community development workers, university lecturers, and developmental psychologists. Ailie Cleghorn is Professor of Education at Concordia University in Montreal. She teaches in the Educational Studies Masters Program and conducts research that is grounded in her field of comparative sociology of education. Earlier publications include Issues in African Education: Sociological Perspectives, with Ali A. Abdi (Palgrave-MacMillan) and Missing the Meaning: The Development and Use of Print and Non-Print Text Materials in Diverse School Settings, with Alan Peacock (Palgrave-MacMillan). Larry Prochner is Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Alberta. His research centres on the historical and comparative study of education. Recent publications include The History of Early Childhood Education in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand (University of British Columbia Press), and Early Childhood Care and Education: Theory and Practice, with Prerana mohite (Concept Publishers). The Afterword is written by Professor Jessica Ball, School of Child and Youth Care, University of Victoria, British Columbia. Professor Ball is the Principal Investigator on projects in the Early Childhood Development Intercultural Partnerships program at the University of Victoria. She is also Coordinator of First Nations Partnership Programs - a two-year diploma program in early childhood education and youth care, delivered through partnerships with Indigenous communities and post-secondary institutions in western Canada. She has worked extensively to protect cultural diversity and support development of community-based services to promote optimal child health and development.