This four-volume encyclopedia covers a wide range of themes and topics, including: Social constructions of childhood, Children's rights, Politics/representations/geographies, Child-specific research methods, Histories of childhood/Transnational childhoods, Sociology/anthropology of childhood theories and Theorists key concepts. This interdisciplinary encyclopedia will be of interest to students and researchers in: Childhood studies, Sociology/Anthropology, Psychology/Education, Social Welfare, Cultural studies/Gender studies/Disabilty studies.

This innovative Australian book explores opportunities for creativity within an early childhood environment. Challenging existing educational practice this book offers an alternative way of learning about program planning and observation, and will provide you with the underpinning knowledge to support the design and implementation of a creative children's program. It covers: play and leisure; opportunities, organization and experience for children; observation - use and interpretation of; records, facilitation of the design, coordination, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of programs; and the development of programs for children with additional needs.

Doing Early Childhood Research demystifies the research process. An international team of experienced researchers shows how to select the right questions and use the appropriate methods to investigate important issues in early childhood. The editors and authors provide a thorough introduction to the most common research methods used in the early childhood context. Reflecting the multidisciplinary nature of much early childhood research, they cover a wide range of conventional and newer approaches including observation, small surveys, action research, ethnography, policy analysis and poststructuralist approaches. They explain clearly how to set up research projects which are theoretically grounded, well-designed, rigorously analysed, feasible and ethically fair. Each chapter is illustrated with examples and case studies. Doing Early Childhood Research is essential reading for new researchers and students inexperienced in conducting research.

What are the fundamental elements of good quantitative and qualitative research? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each approach? What does research offer early childhood education? Are quantitative and qualitative approaches compatible? This book presents the research process and its components in a straightforward, easily accessible manner. Using real examples from early childhood education, authors William L. Goodwin and Laura D. Goodwin "bring to life" for the first time the various methods of research and how they may be studied and applied. They explore the major aspects of both quantitative and qualitative paradigms and techniques, stressing the compatibility and complementary nature of the two approaches that are so often seen as mutually exclusive if not downright contradictory.

Science in Early Childhood is the essential science education resource for all pre-service early childhood educators.

Exploring Materiality in Childhood: Body, Relations and Space explores the multiple ways that childhood and materiality are intertwined and assembled. Bringing together a diverse range of authors, this topical book makes a scholarly contribution to our understanding of the entanglements of materiality and childhoods in international contexts. Chapters explore how various environments and material resources, including technologies and consumer goods, affect children’s lives. The book caters to a diverse range of theories, in sociomaterialist, posthumanist, post-anthropocentric and more-than-human research, critically exploring the boundaries of these theoretical approaches with diverse empirical cases. These wide ranges of perspectives develop alternatives to human-centred approaches in understanding children and childhoods. With its diverse theoretical and methodological choices, the book also serves as a versatile example for how to conduct research with children and on childhood. This book will be of great interest for academics, researchers, and postgraduate students in childhood studies, early childhood education, social sciences, cultural sciences and sociology.

This book brings together a collection of work from around the world in order to consider effective STEM, robotics, mobile apps education from a range of perspectives. It presents valuable perspectives—both practical and theoretical—that enrich the current STEM, robotics, mobile apps education agenda. As such, the book makes a substantial contribution to the literature and outlines the key challenges in research, policy, and practice for STEM education, from early childhood through to the first school age education. The audience for the book includes college students, teachers of young children, college and university faculty, and professionals from fields other than education who are unified by their commitment to the care and education of young children.

Children’s learning, development and well-being are directly influenced by their daily interactions with other children, adults, their families and the environment. This interactive process is known as “process quality”, and leads to a key question – which policies set the best conditions for children to experience high-quality interactions in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings?

The goal of this edited volume is to share ideas and examples of impactful practices useful for teacher educators in Early Childhood Education degree programs (associate, bachelor, and graduate level) as well as teacher educators in other settings. Impactful practice is defined as course or assignment design, pedagogy, or innovation in teaching, instruction, or assessment that has been found to be transformative for the individuals participating in that learning. This book intends to provide the reader with multiple examples of effective and innovative practices when teaching preservice or inservice teachers. Chapters will describe in-class activities and program level initiatives on a variety of important topics. The chapters are written by expert practitioners who have successfully implemented these practices. Chapters contain resources, sample assignments, syllabi, and student work.

Focused on engaging all students, Inclusive Teaching in the Early Childhood Science Classroom walks readers through the process of planning, developing, and implementing science instruction for early learners. Drawing on a range of pedagogical processes and approaches, this comprehensive text links science to other disciplines and explores how we develop language, social-emotional, and content learning through early childhood science. Each chapter is framed around an essential question and features success criteria and reflection tasks to guide readers through the content. Aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards and addressing the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium Model Core Teaching Standards, this textbook is critical reading for preservice teacher education students enrolled in an inclusive early childhood or early childhood science methods course.