Books in the Contesting Early Childhood series

Aims to identify the gaps needing to be bridged to achieve a more inclusive and early childhood education, in relation to class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, race, disabilities and age. This book explores various ways of bridging these gaps. It is suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate students of early childhood education.

This book offers a collection of Rinaldi's most important articles, lectures and interviews between 1994 to the present day, organised around a number of themes and with a full introduction contextualising each piece of work.

Loris Malaguzzi (1920 -1994) has become internationally known in early childhood education, closely identified with the pedagogical ideas and practices with which the world famous pre-schools of Reggio Emilia is associated. This unique book provides a rare insight into an exceptional figure by giving an English-reading audience a deeper understanding of the pedagogical thinking of one of the great educators of the last century.Readers will discover through Malaguzzi¿s own words, how his thinking developed, how he moved between theory and practice, how he border-crossed many disciplines and subjects, the thinking behind is `hundred language of children¿, pedagogical documentation, and how he combined many roles ranging from politician and administrator to researcher and pedagogue.

Using case studies from Kazakhstan, Swaziland, Himalayan India and Brazil, this book discusses how poverty is recognized and defined, and how political and economic conditions undermine or even prematurely end the lives of millions of young children.

In contemporary educational contexts young children and learning are tamed, predicted, and evaluated according to predetermined standards. Contesting such intense governing of the learning child, this book argues that the challenge to practice and research is to find ways of regaining movement and experimentation in subjectivity and learning.

This reflection on Paulo Freire¿s seminal volume, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, examines the lessons learnt from Freire and their place in contemporary pedagogical theory and practice. Freire¿s work has inspired ground-breaking research which Vandenbroeck has collated, demonstrating the ongoing influence on early childhood educators.

Using examples and illustrations, this book presents the case for why and how adults should play with young children to create with them a 'workshop for life'. It confronts adult discomfort over children's play with pretend weapons, as it encourages adults to support children's desires to experience in imagination the limits of life and death.

Drawing upon the 'Reggio approach' amongst others, this book explores the ethical and political dimensions of early childhood services.

Using case studies and real situations, this book highlights the contribution that Foucault and other post-structural theorists can make to research and practice in early childhood services.

This book explores the relationship between pre-school settings and compulsory education. Using a previously unpublished extended essay on the pre-school/school relationship as a starting point, Pre-school and school: two different traditions and the vision of a meeting place by Gunilla Dahlberg and Lenz Taguchi, the contributors to this book suggest how a 'strong and equal partnership' might be conceptualised and developed.

This book explores the relationship between pre-school settings and compulsory education. Using a previously unpublished extended essay on the pre-school/school relationship as a starting point, Pre-school and school: two different traditions and the vision of a meeting place by Gunilla Dahlberg and Lenz Taguchi, the contributors to this book suggest how a 'strong and equal partnership' might be conceptualised and developed.

Explores the contribution made by art and creativity to early education and learning, by focusing upon and understanding more about the role of the 'atelier' in the pioneering pre-schools of Reggio Emilia.