Postdevelopmental Approaches to Childhood – serie

This book argues that developmental approaches to observation in childhood pedagogy are limiting, that there is an urgent need to unsettle and reimagine observation, proposing new postdevelopmental theories and modes of inquiry for educators. Written by leading scholars based in Australia, Canada, Finland, New Zealand, the UK and the USA, the chapters consider observation as it is enacted in the home, nursery or classroom. Drawing on a range of theories including feminist new materialism, social semiotics, and sociocultural and multimodal approaches to early childhood the chapters cover a range of areas from early childhood art and observational literacy tools to intergenerational research, and using photography and video in observations.

This book argues that developmental approaches to observation in childhood pedagogy are limiting, that there is an urgent need to unsettle and reimagine observation, proposing new postdevelopmental theories and modes of inquiry for educators. Written by leading scholars based in Australia, Canada, Finland, New Zealand, the UK and the USA, the chapters consider observation as it is enacted in the home, nursery or classroom. Drawing on a range of theories including feminist new materialism, social semiotics, and sociocultural and multimodal approaches to early childhood the chapters cover a range of areas from early childhood art and observational literacy tools to intergenerational research, and using photography and video in observations.

This book challenges the developmentalist paradigm that dominates research into children and childhood, focusing on observation as a research method. It offers new postdevelopmental ways of conducting childhood observations which are diverse in context and theoretical orientation, and in the process, deconstructs the dominant traditions of childhood research. Written by leading scholars based in Canada, Norway, the UK, and the USA, the chapters consider observation as it is enacted in the home, nursery or classroom. Drawing on a range of theories including feminist new materialism, social semiotics, and posthumanism, the chapters cover a range of topics including reciprocal methods, photography, childhood art, and memoir.

This book challenges the developmentalist paradigm that dominates research into children and childhood, focusing on observation as a research method. It offers new postdevelopmental ways of conducting childhood observations which are diverse in context and theoretical orientation, and in the process, deconstructs the dominant traditions of childhood research. Written by leading scholars based in Canada, Norway, the UK, and the USA, the chapters consider observation as it is enacted in the home, nursery or classroom. Drawing on a range of theories including feminist new materialism, social semiotics, and posthumanism, the chapters cover a range of topics including reciprocal methods, photography, childhood art, and memoir.

This book deconstructs traditional developmentalist logic around children’s engagement with digital media where the focus is on what the digital ‘does to’ children’s bodies and brains. Rather than seeing children as vulnerable and passive recipients, the authors position children as co-creators and digital artists, embracing the richness of children’s digital play. The chapters cover a wide range of topics including indigenous digital art, digital drawing, learning to code, social media and artificial intelligence. The authors use a diverse range of theoretical perspectives, including posthumanism, feminist new materialism, social semiotics, socialcultural and multimodal approaches to childhood to generate new ways of seeing the relationship between children and the digital. The book includes chapters from academics and practitioners based in Australia, Canada, Sweden, the UK and the USA and a companion website showcasing innovative and interactive material, including visual essays and soundscapes.

This book deconstructs traditional developmentalist logic around children’s engagement with digital media where the focus is on what the digital ‘does to’ children’s bodies and brains. Rather than seeing children as vulnerable and passive recipients, the authors position children as co-creators and digital artists, embracing the richness of children’s digital play. The chapters cover a wide range of topics including indigenous digital art, digital drawing, learning to code, social media and artificial intelligence. The authors use a diverse range of theoretical perspectives, including posthumanism, feminist new materialism, social semiotics, socialcultural and multimodal approaches to childhood to generate new ways of seeing the relationship between children and the digital. The book includes chapters from academics and practitioners based in Australia, Canada, Sweden, the UK and the USA and a companion website showcasing innovative and interactive material, including visual essays and soundscapes.

This book deconstructs traditional developmentalist logic around play and explores play in the broadest sense. It deconstructs traditional developmentalist logic around play where the focus is on what play enables children’s bodies and brains to do and become. This book includes contributions from academics and practitioners based in Australia, Canada, Finland, South Africa, the USA and the UK and explores play in the broadest sense, making space for the myriad forms that play takes for both children and adults connected to children in childhood contexts. By broadening the definition and being open to the ways that play emerges through research and pedagogy this book disrupts and extends existing ideas (and practices) in early childhood. The contributors offer alternative ways of thinking about play in childhood, including those emerging from indigenous, posthumanist, feminist new materialist, social semiotic, socio-cultural, aesthetic and multimodal approaches to childhood.

This book deconstructs traditional developmentalist logic around play and explores play in the broadest sense. It deconstructs traditional developmentalist logic around play where the focus is on what play enables children’s bodies and brains to do and become. This book includes contributions from academics and practitioners based in Australia, Canada, Finland, South Africa, the USA and the UK and explores play in the broadest sense, making space for the myriad forms that play takes for both children and adults connected to children in childhood contexts. By broadening the definition and being open to the ways that play emerges through research and pedagogy this book disrupts and extends existing ideas (and practices) in early childhood. The contributors offer alternative ways of thinking about play in childhood, including those emerging from indigenous, posthumanist, feminist new materialist, social semiotic, socio-cultural, aesthetic and multimodal approaches to childhood.

Postdevelopmental Approaches to Babyhood critiques and challenges the existing developmentalist paradigm that constrains our understandings of contemporary babyhood. The discourse that surrounds babies tends to focus on to what extent they are carrying out the behaviours associated with a particular age and stage such as: Are they rolling over yet? Are they sitting up yet? Are they grabbing toys yet? This book explores what exists beyond these ‘yet’ questions and asks what it might mean to view babyhood through a postdevelopmentalist perspective with a focus on pedagogy, observation, relationships, the material environment, home and institutional contexts and baby rearing in diverse cultural contexts. The book includes chapters from researchers and practitioners based in Australia, Spain, Sweden, UAE, the UK and the USA, who draw on diverse theoretical and methodological approaches including multimodality and social semiotics, posthumanism and feminist new materialism, sociocultural approaches to learning, postdevelopmental psychology, psychoanalysis and more.

This book examines the role that adults play in shaping children’s earliest experiences of art making and challenges common myths and misconceptions around early childhood art. Written from a postdevelopmentalist position, it offers new approaches to teaching that foster children’s agency and participation with art. Drawing on the works of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Jacques Ranciére, Lauren Berlant and Elizabeth Grosz, the authors explore a range of theoretical perspectives, including childism/adultism, epistemic injustice, postdevelopmentalism, posthumanism, motherscholarship and new materialism to present an alternative vision of young children. The book includes chapters from academics and practitioners based in Canada, Finland, the UK and the US, and makes use of rich photographic documentations and vivid case studies of practice to illustrate different approaches and teaching of art in early childhood. By sharing artmaking experiences from different cultures and contexts the contributors reconceptualise the art studio as somewhere to reimagine the cultural identity of young learners.