Philosophy and Pedagogy of Early Childhood

This book offers exciting scholarship on a range of philosophical perspectives about early childhood education, particularly those related to pedagogy and related concepts of care and education. In this era of pedagogical certainty, the book comprises a unique set of challenges to standards-based agendas. Increased attention is granted to the subjective, sometimes mysterious, approaches to learning that call for ontological orientations to pedagogy as a relationship rather than a response or intervention. This book was originally published as a special issue of Educational Philosophy and Theory.

Sandy Farquhar is Director of ECE and Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her main research area is the philosophy of early childhood education and narrative theory. She has published widely in the areas of early childhood and narrative theories, including her book, Ricoeur, identity and early childhood (2010), and two co-edited special issues of Educational Philosophy and Theory on the philosophy of early childhood (2007 and 2014). She has a variety of teaching and research interests, including early childhood curriculum and pedagogy, philosophy of education, early childhood politics and policy, childhood studies, and theories of narrative identity. E. Jayne White is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Waikato, New Zealand, where she is co-director of the Visual Lab and a member of the Early Years Research Centre. Her pedagogical and philosophical work focuses on the complex processes and practices of meaning-making in contemporary 'open' societies. At the heart of her practice lies a strong emphasis on dialogic pedagogy, and the ways in which teachers can best engage within complex learning relationships - with a particular emphasis on the earliest years and 'the work of the eye'. She is co-editor of the recently launched Video Journal of Education and Pedagogy, associate editor of the International Journal of Early Childhood, and reviews for several other journals, including Educational Philosophy and Theory. Her latest book is Introducing Dialogic Pedagogy: Provocations for the Early Years (Routledge, 2016).

Introduction: Philosophy and Pedagogy of Early Childhood 1. 'These Happen To Be My Own': The loss of childhood identity and the idea of a self 2. 'How Early is Early?' Or 'How Late is Late?': Thinking through some issues in early intervention 3. My Feelings: Power, politics and childhood subjectivities 4. Creating Space for Infants to Influence ECEC Practice: The encounter, écart, reversibility and ethical reflection 5. Sensory Pedagogy: Understanding and encountering children through the senses 6. 'Are You 'Avin a Laff?': A pedagogical response to Bakhtinian carnivalesque in early childhood education 7. The Theory of 'Belonging': Defining concepts used within Belonging, Being and Becoming - The Australian Early Years Learning Framework 8. Well-Being Narratives and Young Children 9. An encounter with 'sayings' of curriculum: Levinas and the formalisation of infants' learning 10. {Le Théâtre de la Cruauté} or When Caring 'Is'