Rethinking Readiness in Early Childhood Education: Implications for Policy and Practice

by Jeanne Marie Iorio, Will Parnell

Overview

This book challenges traditional conceptions of readiness in early childhood education by sharing concrete examples of practice, policy and histories that rethink readiness. This book seeks to reimagine possible new educational worlds for young children.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137485120
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	02/18/2015
Series:	Critical Cultural Studies of Childhood
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	232
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

William Ayers, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA Robert Bastien, Public Health Agency, Canada Anne Bauer, Aquatic Park School, USA Dana Frantz Bentley, Buckingham Browne and Nichols School, USA Marianne Bloch, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA Lynn Cohen, USA Sue Dockett, Charles Sturt University, Australia Tonia Durden, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA Lorraine Falchi, La Escuelita, USA Dana E. Friedman, USA Jennifer Weiss Friedman, La Escuelita, USA Michelle Grant-Groves, USA Koeun Kim, Northwest Missouri State University, USA Linda Laidlaw, University of Alberta, Canada. Sheri Leafgren, Miami University, USA Joanne Lehrer, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada Julie Nicholson, Mills College, USA Joanne O'Mara, Deakin University, Australia Karen Ortiz, Helios Education Foundation, USA Bob Perry, Charles Sturt University, Australia Lacey Peters, Hunter College, City University of New York, USA Susan L. Recchia, Columbia University, USA Heather J. Pinedo-Burns, Columbia University, USA Elizabeth Quintero, California State University, Channel Islands, USA Beth Blue Swadener, Arizona State University, USA Ristyn Woolley, USA Suzanna So-Har Wong, University of Alberta, Canada

Table of Contents

Ready or Not: Learning and Living; William Ayers 1. A Cultural History of 'Readiness' in Early Childhood Care and Education: Are There Still Culturally Relevant, Ethical, and Imaginative Spaces for Learning Open for Young Children and Their Families?; Marianne N. Bloch and Koeun Kim 2. Ready for School? Lessons from a Socio-historical Investigation into Mechanisms of Preparation and Classification of Children for Primary School from 1911 to 1979; Joanne Lehrer and Robert Bastien 3. Something Isn't Right: Deconstructing Readiness with Parents, Teachers&Children; Lacey Peters, Karen Ortiz, and Elizabeth Swadener 4. The Early Development Instrument: A Bioecological View of School Readiness; Lynn Cohen and Dana E. Friedman 5. "Daddy, Look at the Video I Made on my iPad!": Reconceptualizing 'Readiness' in the Digital Age; Linda Laidlaw, Joanne O'Mara and Suzanna Wong 6. Cracking the Walls of the Education Matrix: Are you Ready to Educate Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students?; Tonia Durden 7. Are You My Dawg?: Socially and Politically Marginalized Children Desiring to be Seen and Valued by Their Teachers; Sheri Leafgren 8. Rethinking the Discourse of Readiness in Preschool; Lori Falchi and Jennifer Weiss Friedman 9. Transition to School: Times of Opportunity, Expectation, Aspiration, and Entitlement; Sue Dockett and Robert Perry 10. "Who They Are and What They Have to Say Matters...": How a Child-Centered Preschool Experience Shapes Children's Navigation of Kindergarten; Susan L. Recchia and Dana Frantz Bentley 11. The Importance of Wonder; Heather Pinedo-Burns 12. Juan, Melina, and Friends: Guides for Reconceptualizing Readiness; Elizabeth P. Quintero 13. Inserting Postmodern Epistemological Perspectives into Discourse on Readiness: Privileging Assets, Capacity Building, and Diversity to Increase Equity; Julie Nicholson, Michelle Grant-Groves, Anne Bauer, and Ristyn Woolley 14. Reimagining Possible Worlds for Young Children; Will Parnell and Jeanne Marie Iorio

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"In assembling a dazzling array of international authors engaged in rethinking readiness in early childhood education, Iorio and Parnell stimulate readers to re-imagine readiness that includes all its complexities, ambiguities, and paradoxical nature. The chapters encourage critical review of long-held assumptions and encourage new ways of reconceptualizing from a strong theoretical base. Viewing readiness from the perspectives of teachers, children, and parents, each chapter gives us new insight into this important educational policy issue." - Nicola Yelland, Professor and Director of Research in the College of Education, Victoria University, Australia

"The rhetoric and so-called 'reforms' of education for our youngest children are deeply problematic, but insidiously so when the goals, narrowly defined as what makes children 'ready' for school, are based in deficit-laden concepts of childhood and learners. Such are the revelations by Iorio, Parnell, and colleagues in Rethinking Readiness in Early Childhood Education with its collection of original analyses that not only reframe how we ought to think about teaching children, but also showcase innovative approaches to doing so. Anyone concerned about early childhood education, and about young children in general, should read and discuss this important new book." - Kevin Kumashiro, author of Bad Teacher!: How Blaming Teachers Distorts the Bigger Picture (2012)

Editorial Reviews

Rethinking Readiness in Early Childhood Education offers readers the chance to reflect on traditional notions of what it means to be prepared for kindergarten. In doing so, it compels its audience to reassess the aims of early learning experiences as well as the extent to which diverse learners and their needs are valued and addressed.” (Rebecca Blazar Lebowitz, Harvard Educational Review, Vol. 86 (3), 2016)

From the Publisher