Reframing the Emotional Worlds of the Early Childhood Classroom

This volume examines the emotional world of the early childhood classroom as it affects young children (whose emotional wellbeing is crucial to successful learning), educators (for whom teaching is never a solely cognitive act), parents, and administrators. In a culture where issues such as bullying and teacher burnout comprise major challenges to student success, this book brings together diverse voices (researchers, practitioners, children, and parents) and multiple perspectives (theoretical and personal) to refocus attention on the pivotal role of emotion in schools. To do so, editors Samara Madrid, David Fernie, and Rebecca Kantor envision emotion as a dynamic, fluid, and negotiated construct, performed and produced in the daily lives of children and adults alike. A nuanced yet cohesive analysis, Reframing the Emotional Worlds of the Early Childhood Classroom thus presents a challenge to the overriding concern with quantifiable classroom achievement that increasingly threatens to push the emotional lives of classroom participants to the margins of educational and public discourse.

Samara Madrid is an Associate Professor in the Department of Elementary and Early Education at the University of Wyoming. David Fernie is Professor of Early Childhood Education and former Dean of Education at Wheelock College. Rebecca Kantor is Dean of the School of Education and Human Development at Colorado University, Denver.

Chapter 1: Introduction to reframing emotion. Samara Madrid, David E. Fernie, and Rebecca Kantor Just Practices and Emotional Discomfort Chapter 2: A family, a fire, and a framework: Emotions in an anti-bias school community. Caryn Park, Debbie LeeKeenan, and Heidi Given Commentary: Patricia Ramsey Chapter 3: Guinea pigs, Asperger's Syndrome, and my son: When teachers struggle to recognize humanity. Steve Bialostok Commentary: Margarita Bianco Chapter 4: Food fight: Difficult negotiations between adults in an early childhood center. Susan Twombly Commentary: Tamar Jacobson Place and Spaces for Emotional Intimacy and Challenge Chapter 5: Recognizing, respecting and reconsidering the emotions of conflict. Ellen Hall and Alison Maher Commentary: Mary Jane Moran Chapter 6: How to hold a hummingbird: Using stories to make space for the emotional lives of children in a public school classroom. Melissa Tonachel Commentary: Laurie Katz Chapter 7: The woods as a toddler classroom: The emotional experience of challenge, connection, and caring. Dee Smith and Jeanne Goldhaber Commentary: John Nimmo Understanding Emotion Within Roles and Relationships Chapter 8: Critical friends work through the emotions of beginning teaching together. David Fernie Commentary: Barbara Seidl Chapter 9: Emotional intersections in early childhood leadership. Nikki Baldwin Commentary: Holly Elissa Bruno Chapter 10: Promoting peer relations for young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: The LEAP preschool experience. Phillip S. Strain and Edward H. Bovey Commentary: Michelle Buchanan Contributors Index