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.

Programming & Planning in Early Childhood Settings explores a range of approaches to curriculum and to documenting children's learning in early childhood settings. This valuable resource for early childhood education students and practitioners provides a broad view of the concepts and issues in early childhood curriculum. Chapters reflect ongoing discussions about what is meant by the terms 'planning' and 'programming' in the context of early childhood, what is authentic curriculum for young children, and effective teaching strategies to extend young children's learning. The strong focus on sociocultural theories of learning promotes awareness of children's diverse experiences, competencies and learning styles, and helps readers recognise the need for collaborative partnerships between educators, children and families in order to develop appropriate programs. Thoroughly revised and updated, this new edition shows how chapters of the text are relevant to the Australian Professional Standards for teachers, and highlights connections to the school-based context. Numerous real-life examples, reflections, articles and case studies assist students to understand a variety of educational theories, philosophies and frameworks. Throughout the book there is a focus on the processes of reflection, evaluation and ongoing improvement.

Written to support delivery of units in the Diploma of Children’s Services, this text explores children’s development, and the skills and philosophies needed to design programs for individual children and groups. WORKING IN CHILDREN’S SERVICES SERIES Each of the books in the award-winning Working in Children’s Services Series has been written to assist students in attaining the skills and knowledge required to achieve a Children’s Services qualification. With its easy-to-read style and engaging full-colour presentation, this series is an excellent resource for students.

Managing Children's Services provides the underpinning knowledge and skills necessary to manage and administer children's services programs effectively. Written in three parts the book first introduces philosophical and marketplace perspectives. It then deals with and introduction to management, including theories and structures of children's services. The third part covers a broad range of issues involved in administration, such as financial management, office administration and organisational planning. Each chapter has expanded upon and written to reflect new approaches to learning including additional references and resources.

Writing Language, Culture and Development has 2 essays, 6 stories, 63 poems, 2 plays, and 50 translations into 13 languages; Chinese, Japanese, Nepalese, Arabic, Russian, Korean, Kiswahili, Shona, Hausa, Idoma, Igbo, Akan Twi, and of course, English, from Authors and poets who reside in these among other countries: South Africa, Japan, Vietnam, Nepal, China, Korea, Rusia, Tunisia, Nigeria, India, USA, Canada, Australia, Italy, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Kenya, and the UK, who are connected to these two continents, Asia and Africa. Nurturing South-South interactions and interlocutions, spiritually is an open ended discourse and praxis. It is envisioned that this ground-breaking idea will serve as a testament to future cooperations between the two continents. It is hoped Africa and Asia can use their competencies, i.e., human capital, culture, and langauges, histories, and deconstructionist agendas, to create developmental competences and this book highlights and explore a number of pathways that creatives of the two lands can explore and exploit as they march into a future of Weltliteratur. The cast and nature of the book and its content is a product of thought, imagination and environment. We invite you to it’s offerings that individually, and collectively, accentuate our allied artistic commitment to the Humanities as an arena of thought on identities, languages, cultures, histories and epistemologies of postcolonial posture.

Early Childhood Education in the United States is rife with contradictions, critique and innovation. It is a time when a status quo – characterized by systemic, historic discrimination; teacher de-professionalization; 'teaching to the test'; and attacks on funding – is challenged by new technologies, new literacies and transformative and critical perspectives and practices that defy assumptions and biases to create cutting-edge, diverse instantiations of Early Childhood Education for children, families, and teachers. This volume, based on a special issue of the Early Years journal written in 2016 before the new administration announced its policies, aims to generate conversations about developments in Early Childhood Education, situated within classist/racist/linguicist and neoliberal contexts, and to analyze critically where we are, where we might go and what we might do. It is also an opportunity to share counter-narratives to the dominant narratives promulgated by many, convinced that narrow, destructive norms of appropriate practice, standards, and accountability, as well as the curtailed achievement of children of Color, those from low income communities, and emergent bilinguals are ‘common sense’. These counter-narratives – some about transformational projects that have generated innovative perspectives and practices, and some detailing critical analyses and projects that go beyond to explore issues of power – contest education that disprivileges some children and families while advocating education that is child- and family-centered, culturally relevant and sustaining, equitable and democratic. Our hope is that this work creates a 'space of dialogue and human action' needed even more urgently today. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Early Years journal.