International Handbook of Early Childhood Education

Marilyn Fleer: Torn between studying psychology and education as an undergraduate, Professor Marilyn Fleer ended up choosing early childhood education, a nascent field that straddled both her areas of interest. She hasn’t looked back since. As soon as she got into early childhood education she enjoyed it, Marilyn says. “I found it intellectually stimulating, and there’s plenty of scope for making a difference with my research.” She is now studying the early stages of concept formation – and how playtime can help promote children’s imagination, and the more ‘rational’ thinking later on as adults. “Imagination, creativity, and games are really important for development. Think of a child at home: they can take an ordinary stick, pretend that it’s a horse, and ‘ride’ on it. What they’ve done is change the meaning of the stick – they’ve used their imagination to think abstractly. It’s one step away from the same child turning the ‘stick’ into a ruler by measuring something with it at school. By using their imagination, they’ve learned to think more abstractly – and therefore become a more successful learner.” With the push for greater outcomes from very young children, particularly in literacy and numeracy, Marilyn’s field of research is gaining public and international interest. Bert van Oers (PhD) is special professor of Cultural-historical Theory of Education at the Department of ‘Research and Theory in Education’ at VU University Amsterdam. He specialized in Cultural-historical activity theory since the 1970s and is now working at a CHAT-based theory of play and playful learning.  His major research interest focusses on the implementation of a play-based curriculum in primary school, and the elaboration and evaluation of Developmental Education. He published about this (among others) in B. van Oers (ed.), Developmental Education for young children. Springer, 2012.

• Volume 1Section 1: Theoretical Perspectives.- 1. International trends in research: redressing the north-south balance in what matters for early childhood education research; Marilyn Fleer and Bert van Oers.- 2. Governing childhood; Iris Duhn.- 3. ‘Humpty Dumpty’ - teaching strategy or postcolonial method: what do we know about power, voice and identity within early childhood education in the 21st Century?; Karen Martin.- 4. Engaging with the conceptual tools and challenges of poststructural theories; Affrica Taylor.- 5. Early years education in the Anthropocene: an ecophenomenology of children’s experience; Phillip G. Payne.- Section 2: Research Methodologies.- 6. (Co)-researching with children; Alma Fleet and Deborah Harcourt.- 7. Policy analysis and document research; Chris Peers.- 8. Mixed methods in early childhood education; Judith Schoonenboom.- 9. Narrative learning of literacy; Pentti Hakkarainen and Marja-Leena Vuorinen.- 10. Current approaches in quantitative research in early childhood education; Linda J. Harrison and Cen Wang.- Section 3: Contemporary Research and Evidence - early childhood education globally: Western Europe and UK.- 11. Introduction to Western Europe & UK; David Whitebread.-  12. Neuroscience and early childhood education; Lysandra Sinclaire-Harding, Laura Vuillier and David Whitebread.- 13. School readiness in Europe: issues and evidence; Sue Bingham1 and David Whitebread.- 14. Early childhood education with disadvantaged children: Actions for success; Marta Soler and Ainhoa Flecha.- 15. Professional development in a competent system: an emergent culture of professionalization; Florence Pirard, Pascale Camus and Jean-Marie Barbier.- 16. Contemporary research in early childhood: roots and perspectives; Elena Kravtsova, Nikolai Veraksa and Nikolai Veresov.- 17. Symbolic means in the educational programs for preschool children in Russia; Nina Salmina and Aleksander Veraksa.- 18. Pre-school education in Ukraine; Roman Shiyan, Igor Shiyan and Natalia Sofiy.- 19. Pedagogical center “experiment”: the peculiarities in preschool education in Holistic Developing Education (HDE); Bronislav Zeltserman, Latvia Riga, Margarita Dubina, Margarita Dragile, Maria Pekarskaya, Irina Maluhina and Inta Baltina.- 20. Introduction – early childhood in the Australasian region; Jane Bone.- 21. The historical emergence of early childhood education research in Australia; Joyce Nuttall and Sue Grieshaber.- 22. Connections between early childhood policy and research in Aotearoa New Zealand: 1970s-2010s; Anne Smith and Helen May.- 23. Towards Wawasan Brunei 2035: early childhood education and development in Brunei Darussalam; Hanapi bin Mohamad, Rosyati M.Yaakub, Emma Claire Pearson and Jennifer Tan Poh Sim.- 24. Early childhood education in Bangladesh: a review of policies, practices and research; Shukla Sikder and Laila Farhana Apnan Banu.- 25. Early childhood education reform: crisis and changes; Liang Li,Yuejuan Pan and Xiaoying Wang.- 26. Early childhood education and development in China; Yuejuan Pan, Xiaoying Wang and Liang Li.- 27. History and reform of early childhood care and education (ECCE) in Japan; Xiangying Liu and Chiafen Lin.- 28. Early childhood education and development in Singapore; Sirene May-Yin Lim.- 29. Vietnam early childhood education; Phan Thi Thu Hien.- 30. Examining early childhood education system in Ghana: How can Bourdieuian theorisation support a transformational approach to pedagogy?; Joseph Agbenyega.- 31. Rising from the ‘ashes’: quality early childhood education as a panacea for national development in Sierra Leone; Eleni Anthinodorou and Joseph Agbenyega.- 32. Early educational practices in Canada and the United States; Artin Göncü1 and Carollee Howes. 33. Early childhood education and care in Canada; Nina Howe, KathleenFlanagan and Michal Perlman.- 34. Early childhood teacher-child relationships in the United States: theory, practices, and regulation; Sandra Soliday Hong and Promjawan Udommana.- 35. Parent involvement in U.S. early childhood education: benefits, limitations, and reconceptualizations; Angela Pons Clifford and Marisha L. Humphries.- 36. Early childhood education and development in Latin America; Rebeca Mejía-Arauz and Gloria Quiñones.- 37. Educational practices and young children’s socio-moral development: a cultural psychological approach; Angela Uchoa Branco, Angela Rabelo Barreto and Ália Barrios.- 38. Childhood education in Colombia; Francisco José and Rengifo-Herrera.- 39. Early childhood education in Chile; Rodrigo A. Cárcamo.- 40. Early childhood education in Guatemala; María Eugenia Rabbe.- 41. Early childhood education and development in Mexico; Rebeca Mejía-Arauz and Gloria Quiñones