Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood

Sustainability education is increasingly practiced in early childhood, but a previous review of the literature suggests that there is little empirical research to provide the necessary foundation and critique. The current paper addresses the question of whether there has been an increase in empirical research in the field since this review, and if so, what are the theoretical and methodological developments informing this research. The method of the study is to review the literature in the field following similar processes to the previous review in order to provide a comparison. The articles identified were then categorized and evaluated according to their different theoretical and methodological orientations. The review found that there are twice as many articles as identified in the previous study and that these articles are now equally published in mainstream and environmental education journals. A meta-analysis of the articles using a typology of methodological orientations provided a basis for critique. Three major categories of theoretical orientation were identified as: Connection to nature; Children’s rights; and Post-human frameworks with varying degrees of theoretical engagement. It is recommended that new post-human frameworks recently applied in early childhood education research could usefully be connected to researching early childhood education for planetary sustainability.

Little research exists on young children’s beliefs about mathematics, and current research perspectives on early mathematical activity may overlook a great deal of young children’s sophisticated mathematical thinking. We argue this is attributable, in part, to a need for a broader view of what mathematics is, including cultural practices that are mathematical. Thus, this study investigated a young child’s mathematical activity and beliefs prior to school using a framework reflecting a view of mathematics as cultural activity. Through the case study of Olivia, aged 3 and 9 months, we found that her early beliefs about mathematics did not reflect her rich mathematical activity. Although Olivia engaged in a diverse range of mathematical activity (counting, measuring, designing, playing, locating, and explaining), what she believed mathematics to be was constrained to writing numbers and letters. To help young children perceive their own activity as mathematical, we argue there is a need: (a) for researchers, parents, teachers, and teacher educators to recognize the range of mathematics in children’s everyday activities; (b) to explicitly tell children when their activity includes mathematics; and (c) for teacher educators to emphasize the cultural nature of early mathematical experiences and how to capitalize on these experiences.

Various forms of digital devices have established themselves as resources within constructions of professional practices in early childhood education. This article is centred on the question of how we might rethink an example of digital practice based on a Foucauldian understanding of discourse and a rhizomatic understanding of digital practice through the actor network theory. The article puts forth several theoretical arguments to examine data illustrating recurring situations from an ethnographically inspired fieldwork in Norwegian kindergartens. Acknowledging how material agency destabilises human knowledge, the final section of the paper presents the Deleuzian concept of ‘event’ to examine some elements that evoke forces and actions in the network. The article argues that the potential of these forces can both open up pedagogy in relation to digital practices and challenge notions of agency when non-humans are understood as actors.

Discourses of love, care and maternalism affect the everyday lives of children enrolled in early childhood education. These discourses bear witness to the ontological transformation that has occurred since the Romantic era that birthed the kindergarten movement to today. Reflecting on historical discourses of love, care and maternalism from the Romantic era, this article considers how the historical development of these discourses affects our professional understandings of love, care and maternalism in early childhood education.

Neoliberalism and an associated ‘new politics of parenting’ adopts a predominantly economic rationale which discursively positions early childhood education and care (ECEC) as essential to tackling several social ills by allowing individual parents (particularly young mothers) to improve their labour force participation, thus boosting family income. This paper considers this discourse and its uptake locally in the context of England. Drawing on qualitative case study research, the paper focuses upon a small number of young mothers who were recipients of nationally and locally subsidized ECEC from 2009 onwards. Although keen to boost individual and family income via paid work through accessing subsidized ECEC, these mothers provide evidence questioning the assumption it can be a panacea helping to reduce susceptibility to low income. Subsidized ECEC’s viability in economic terms is critically scrutinized. However, the mothers’ narratives support the idea of ‘a rationality mistake’ inflicting ECEC policy. Despite on-going economically bounded conditions of choice, they felt subsidized ECEC’s viability was undiminished as it also lay for them in the highly valued access to ordinary patterns, customs and activities in society beyond paid work. This raises important issues in a context where the ‘value for money’ of subsidized ECEC is being questioned.

This paper examines notions of childhood development in a significant Australian policy document. Using Fairclough’s approaches to discourse analysis as guides, Foucault’s understanding of regimes of truth and discourses as systems of power relations and Nikolas Rose’s concept of ‘responsibilisation’, the paper argues that discourses of healthy childhood development as represented in this document produce definitions of ‘proper’ child development and thus, place certain children and families outside this idea. Proper development is understood through Nikolas Rose’s concept of ‘responsibilisation’ where the recognition of ‘at risk’ or ‘improper’ groups, and notions of productivity, are addressed through understandings of performativity while highlighting consequences for children and families.

The preparation of early childhood educators in Tunisia has become part of the mainstream pre-service teacher education programmes. Nonetheless, this field has not yet reached the expected maturity as evidenced by the lack of a guiding vision. A case in point that attests to this state of opacity is the example of foreign language (FL) education. The sector has hardly accommodated the needs of both educators and pre-schoolers. Following an examination of the problems and challenges burdening this area of education, this paper suggests the awakening-to-languages approach (ALA) as an alternative project that maps the future course of FL education wherein young learners grow within pedagogy of discovery and critical thinking rather than mere achievement. This project, long championed by European educationalists, may play a key role in supporting a realistic vision for teaching foreign languages to a segment of learners meagrely addressed by the FL education community in Tunisia.