Jessica Johnson – författare

Offering comprehensive coverage of theories of early learning and child development, this book:

This is an essential book to support all trainees in developing their role and skills as an Early Years Teacher.

Contributors: Kelly Cooper, Fiona Dearman, Jo Elsey, Jessica Johnson, Daryl Maisey, Angela Maxey, Joanne McKibbin, Yasmin Mukadam, Vicky Mummery, Gemma Pawson, Denise Salter, Laltiha Sivalingam, Helen Sutherland.

"Authoritative, scholarly and grounded in practice, this is surely destined to become the must-have practical handbook for all those seeking Early Years Teacher status."Geoff Taggart, Lecturer in Early Years, University of Reading, UK

"Becoming an Early Years Teacher will prove valuable to all those working in the early years sector, and is an accessible and user friendly resource that promotes increased professional responsibility."

Soraya Goni, HE Award Leader Childhood Studies, Kirklees College, UK

"I am delighted to recommend this comprehensive, challenging and accessible power-pack of a book, which deserves to become essential reading for all Early Years Teachers in training and equally for those engaged in studying on Early Childhood Studies degrees."Penny Holland, Early Childhood Consultant

"This book provides essential, well-articulated, thought-provoking guidance for students working towards Early Years Teacher Status. It is a very good book that I would recommend to all Early Years Teacher Status students."Tricia Johnson, Retired Lecturer in Early Years, UK

This book explores Malawi’s recent history in light of longer-term historical developments, contributing important new insights to debates about migration, citizenship, chieftaincy, language, cultural practice, anti-colonialism and nationalism.

The book is organised around five key themes: Rethinking Kamuzu Banda’s Malawi; Rural Development and Agricultural Production; Power and Politics from pre- to post-colony; Malawi and the Southern African Region; and ‘Culture’ and Cultural Production. The focus on a single country facilitates consideration of local particularities, as well as indentification of similarities in the trajectories and challenges shared with other countries in Africa. This book provides a nuanced understanding of Hastings Kamuzu Banda (Malawi’s first Prime Minister and President, 1964-94) and the legacy of his rule. Chapters analyse decolonisation in a political and a cultural sense, and show how the beginning and end of colonial rule were gradual processes rather than sharp ruptures. Individual chapters expand our knowledge of the history of public health, development, rural livelihoods, food production, and agricultural policy, as well as prompting new debate on migration, citizenship, chieftaincy, language, cultural practice, anti-colonialism and nationalism.

This book will be of particular interest to scholars of Malawi and the wider Southern African region. Nine of the chapters were originally published in a special issue of the Journal of Southern African Studies, volume 46, issue 2 (2020). This volume contains a revised Introduction, five additional chapters, all previously published in JSAS, and a new Afterword.

This book explores Malawi’s recent history in light of longer-term historical developments, contributing important new insights to debates about migration, citizenship, chieftaincy, language, cultural practice, anti-colonialism and nationalism.

The book is organised around five key themes: Rethinking Kamuzu Banda’s Malawi; Rural Development and Agricultural Production; Power and Politics from pre- to post-colony; Malawi and the Southern African Region; and ‘Culture’ and Cultural Production. The focus on a single country facilitates consideration of local particularities, as well as indentification of similarities in the trajectories and challenges shared with other countries in Africa. This book provides a nuanced understanding of Hastings Kamuzu Banda (Malawi’s first Prime Minister and President, 1964-94) and the legacy of his rule. Chapters analyse decolonisation in a political and a cultural sense, and show how the beginning and end of colonial rule were gradual processes rather than sharp ruptures. Individual chapters expand our knowledge of the history of public health, development, rural livelihoods, food production, and agricultural policy, as well as prompting new debate on migration, citizenship, chieftaincy, language, cultural practice, anti-colonialism and nationalism.

This book will be of particular interest to scholars of Malawi and the wider Southern African region. Nine of the chapters were originally published in a special issue of the Journal of Southern African Studies, volume 46, issue 2 (2020). This volume contains a revised Introduction, five additional chapters, all previously published in JSAS, and a new Afterword.

Saba Mahmood’s 2005 Politics of Piety is an excellent example of evaluation in action.

Mahmood’s book is a study of women’s participation in the Islamic revival across the Middle East. Mahmood – a feminist social anthropologist with left-wing, secular political values – wanted to understand why women should become such active participants in a movement that seemingly promoted their subjugation. As Mahmood observed, women’s active participation in the conservative Islamic revival presented (and presents) a difficult question for Western feminists: how to balance cultural sensitivity and promotion of religious freedom and pluralism with the feminist project of women’s liberation? Mahmood’s response was to conduct a detailed evaluation of the arguments made by both sides, examining, in particular, the reasoning of female Muslims themselves. In a key moment of evaluation, Mahmood suggests that Western feminist notions of agency are inadequate to arguments about female Muslim piety. Where Western feminists often restrict definitions of women’s agency to acts that undermine the normal, male-dominated order of things, Mahmood suggests, instead, that agency can encompass female acts that uphold apparently patriarchal values.

Ultimately the Western feminist framework is, in her evaluation, inadequate and insufficient for discussing women’s groups in the Islamic revival.

Saba Mahmood’s 2005 Politics of Piety is an excellent example of evaluation in action.

Mahmood’s book is a study of women’s participation in the Islamic revival across the Middle East. Mahmood – a feminist social anthropologist with left-wing, secular political values – wanted to understand why women should become such active participants in a movement that seemingly promoted their subjugation. As Mahmood observed, women’s active participation in the conservative Islamic revival presented (and presents) a difficult question for Western feminists: how to balance cultural sensitivity and promotion of religious freedom and pluralism with the feminist project of women’s liberation? Mahmood’s response was to conduct a detailed evaluation of the arguments made by both sides, examining, in particular, the reasoning of female Muslims themselves. In a key moment of evaluation, Mahmood suggests that Western feminist notions of agency are inadequate to arguments about female Muslim piety. Where Western feminists often restrict definitions of women’s agency to acts that undermine the normal, male-dominated order of things, Mahmood suggests, instead, that agency can encompass female acts that uphold apparently patriarchal values.

Ultimately the Western feminist framework is, in her evaluation, inadequate and insufficient for discussing women’s groups in the Islamic revival.