This book provides significant information regarding the policies and provisions for early childhood teacher education programs in universities in fourteen different countries. Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is expanding rapidly across the globe with unprecedented numbers of children attending EC centres, requiring the investment in educators to provide good quality ECEC. Yet, there is an inconsistent approach to early childhood teacher preparation and the quality of existing programs is not known. Each country's contributing author/s is/are well known in their field for their in-depth knowledge of early childhood teacher education programs including content, structure, and professional experience that works within the scope of policy and registration agencies. The chapters address the current situation of staffing-shortage or oversupply-of early childhood teachers in their country. The book informs policy regarding content of early childhood teacher preparation programs and provides evidence of current courses across many under-represented countries throughout the world. It makes a significant contribution to understanding the environment for early childhood teacher programs.

This book focuses on socioecological learning through the touchstone concepts of the Anthropocene, the Posthuman and Common Worlds as Creative Milieux. The editors and contributors explore, situate and interrogate social learning through transdisciplinary positionings, exemplars and theories. The eclectic and cohesive chapters unfold as a journey that may inspire innovative and unique understandings of the socioecological learner: insights that will surely be paramount as we careen towards the 22nd century and all of its as-yet-unknown challenges. Offering tangible and nuanced practice for educational leadership in socioecological learning, this pioneering book will be of interest and value to researchers and educators at all levels. This volume is sure to appeal to students and scholars of socioecological learning as well as the Anthropocene and the Posthuman.

In an era in which environmental education has been described as one of the most pressing educational concerns of our time, further insights are needed to understand how best to approach the learning and teaching of environmental education in early childhood education. In this book we address this concern by identifying two principles for using play-based learning early childhood environmental education. The principles we identify are the result of research conducted with teachers and children using different types of play-based learning whilst engaged in environmental education. Such play-types connect with the historical use of play-based learning in early childhood education as a basis for pedagogy. In the book 'Beyond Quality in ECE and Care' authors Dahlberg, Moss and Pence implore readers to ask critical questions about commonly held images of how young children come to construct themselves within social institutions. In similar fashion, this little book problematizes the taken-for-grantedness of the childhood development project in service to the certain cultural narratives. Cutter-Mackenzie, Edwards, Moore and Boyd challenge traditional conceptions of play-based learning through the medium of environmental education. This book signals a turning point in social thought grounded in a relational view of (environmental) education as experiential, intergenerational, interspecies, embodied learning in the third space. As Barad says, such work is based in inter-actions that can account for the tangled spaces of agencies. Through the deceptive simplicity of children's play, the book stimulates deliberation of the real purposes of pedagogy and of schooling. Paul Hart, University of Regina, Canada

This book provides significant information regarding the policies and provisions for early childhood teacher education programs in universities in fourteen different countries. Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is expanding rapidly across the globe with unprecedented numbers of children attending EC centres, requiring the investment in educators to provide good quality ECEC. Yet, there is an inconsistent approach to early childhood teacher preparation and the quality of existing programs is not known. Each country's contributing author/s is/are well known in their field for their in-depth knowledge of early childhood teacher education programs including content, structure, and professional experience that works within the scope of policy and registration agencies. The chapters address the current situation of staffing-shortage or oversupply-of early childhood teachers in their country. The book informs policy regarding content of early childhood teacher preparation programs and provides evidence of current courses across many under-represented countries throughout the world. It makes a significant contribution to understanding the environment for early childhood teacher programs.

This book focuses on socioecological learning through the touchstone concepts of the Anthropocene, the Posthuman and Common Worlds as Creative Milieux. The editors and contributors explore, situate and interrogate social learning through transdisciplinary positionings, exemplars and theories. The eclectic and cohesive chapters unfold as a journey that may inspire innovative and unique understandings of the socioecological learner: insights that will surely be paramount as we careen towards the 22nd century and all of its as-yet-unknown challenges. Offering tangible and nuanced practice for educational leadership in socioecological learning, this pioneering book will be of interest and value to researchers and educators at all levels. This volume is sure to appeal to students and scholars of socioecological learning as well as the Anthropocene and the Posthuman.

This book examines the approaches, content and design, and practices of current early childhood teacher preparation programs in universities across Australia, and compares them with those in Finland, Norway and Sweden. It is well established that investment in good quality early childhood education yields the best outcomes for children, and that there is significant correlation between quality early childhood learning environments and qualified teachers. As such, this book offers key insights into academic approaches to the design, implementation and assessment of early childhood teacher programs, and how these programs are shaped in response to requirements and constraints, both within the university context and beyond. This book provides a focus to inform future practice for decision-makers of early childhood teacher policy; researchers interested in improving the quality and status of early childhood education; and assessors of early childhood teacher programs.

Learning and Teaching in Early Childhood: Pedagogies of Inquiry and Relationships is an introduction for early childhood educators beginning their studies. Reflecting the fact that there is no single correct approach to the challenges of teaching, this book explores teaching through two lenses: teaching as inquiry and teaching as relating. The first part of the book focuses on inquiry, covering early childhood learning environments, learning theories, play pedagogies, approaches to teaching and learning, documentation and assessment, and the policy, curriculum and regulatory requirements in Australia. The second part explores relationships in early childhood contexts and covers topics such as fostering meaningful and respectful relationships with children, and working with families, staff and the wider community. Written by well-respected academics in the field, Learning and Teaching in Early Childhood is a vital resource for those entering the early childhood education and care profession.