Critical Issues in ECE by Nicola Yelland (Editor).
Typically an edited book is a loose collection of chapters written by various authors around a theme or topic, agreeing on and promoting to the reader a particular position.
Yelland has instead taken a bold approach of producing an edited book to present “diverse viewpoints, so that readers can discuss the positions and issues being interrogated and make their own evaluations” (p.9).
An apt title for this book on Critical Issues in ECE would be “Against the tide” (the title of a chapter by Yelland & Anna Kilderry).
Yelland notes in the opening that as governments and bureaucrats have been “persuaded” that early childhood education is important for children and families, “research reports have contended that attitudes and performance in the early childhood years can have an important impact on educational outcomes in the later years of schooling” and policy-makers thus want to make sure that early childhood services are effective (p.4).
The problem is that “theories of learning and socialization intrinsic to much early childhood educational literature were conceptualized in vastly different social and economic contexts. These views, that inherently contain modernist thinking, are maintained even though the world has moved into the twenty-first century” (p.5).
She explains that for practitioners “maintaining currency and relevance in the early childhood sector requires a continual engagement with critical issues, as well as finding new ways to adapt to changing educational circumstances. Early childhood educators must look beyond the boundaries of the field, and ask questions of their practice”. (p. 7)
In the light of this aim to promote a critical culture in the early childhood community it would be helpful to have more chapters such as the chapter on “how ‘bad’ can it be” by Mindy Blaise and Yarrow Andrew a teacher educator and a teacher respectively in which they question and discuss their positions, sitting alongside chapters containing theoretical discussions and presentations of research findings.
Jennifer Sumsion’s chapter on preschool children’s portrayals of their male teacher is excellent for showing how young children may view and understand their teacher. It would be useful to include alongside this an interpretation written by the male teacher from his perspective or for another researcher to review the findings and present a re-interpretation.
Every chapter makes a good contribution to the early childhood literature and I would recommend every one. But the absolutely must reads I would suggest are chapters by:
- Daniel J Walsh – Developmental theory and early childhood education: necessary but not sufficient
- Jonathan G. Silin – Who can speak?: Silence voice and pedagogy
- Sharon Ryan – Freedom to choose: Examining children’s experiences in choice time
- Liz Brooker – Learning to be a child: Cultural diversity and early years ideology
- Sheralyn Campbell – Secret children’s business: Resisting and redefining access to learning the early childhood classroom.
Published by Open University Press: McGraw-Hill Education, 2005.
ISBN: 0335215963
