Marilyn Fleer & Bert van Oers 
International Handbook of Early Childhood Education [PDF ebook] 

Volume 1

Section 1: Theoretical Perspectives .- 1. International trends in research: redressing the north-south balance in what matters for early childhood education research; Marilyn Fleer and Bert van Oers.- 2. Governing childhood; Iris Duhn.- 3. ‘Humpty Dumpty’ — teaching strategy or postcolonial method: what do we know about power, voice and identity within early childhood education in the 21st Century?; Karen Martin.- 4. Engaging with the conceptual tools and challenges of poststructural theories; Affrica Taylor.- 5. Early years education in the Anthropocene: an ecophenomenology of children’s experience; Phillip G. Payne.- Section 2: Research Methodologies .- 6. (Co)-researching with children; Alma Fleet and Deborah Harcourt.- 7. Policy analysis and document research; Chris Peers.- 8. Mixed methods in early childhood education; Judith Schoonenboom.- 9. Narrative learning of literacy; Pentti Hakkarainen and Marja-Leena Vuorinen.- 10. Current approaches in quantitative research in early childhood education; Linda J. Harrison and Cen Wang.- Section 3: Contemporary Research and Evidence — early childhood education globally: Western Europe and UK .- 11. Introduction to Western Europe & UK; David Whitebread.-  12. Neuroscience and early childhood education; Lysandra Sinclaire-Harding, Laura Vuillier and David Whitebread.- 13. School readiness in Europe: issues and evidence; Sue Bingham1 and David Whitebread.- 14. Early childhood education with disadvantaged children: Actions for success; Marta Soler and Ainhoa Flecha.- 15. Professional development in a competent system: an emergent culture of professionalization; Florence Pirard, Pascale Camus and Jean-Marie Barbier.- 16. Contemporary research in early childhood: roots and perspectives; Elena Kravtsova, Nikolai Veraksa and Nikolai Veresov.- 17. Symbolic means in the educational programs for preschool children in Russia; Nina Salmina and Aleksander Veraksa.- 18. Pre-school education in Ukraine; Roman Shiyan, Igor Shiyan and Natalia Sofiy.- 19. Pedagogical center “experiment”: the peculiarities in preschool education in Holistic Developing Education (HDE); Bronislav Zeltserman, Latvia Riga, Margarita Dubina, Margarita Dragile, Maria Pekarskaya, Irina Maluhina and Inta Baltina.- 20. Introduction – early childhood in the Australasian region; Jane Bone.- 21. The historical emergence of early childhood education research in Australia; Joyce Nuttall and Sue Grieshaber.- 22. Connections between early childhood policy and research in Aotearoa New Zealand: 1970s-2010s; Anne Smith and Helen May.- 23. Towards Wawasan Brunei 2035: early childhood education and development in Brunei Darussalam; Hanapi bin Mohamad, Rosyati M.Yaakub, Emma Claire Pearson and Jennifer Tan Poh Sim.- 24. Early childhood education in Bangladesh: a review of policies, practices and research; Shukla Sikder and Laila Farhana Apnan Banu.- 25. Early childhood education reform: crisis and changes; Liang Li, Yuejuan Pan and Xiaoying Wang.- 26. Early childhood education and development in China; Yuejuan Pan,  Xiaoying Wang and Liang Li.- 27. History and reform of early childhood care and education (ECCE) in Japan; Xiangying Liu and Chiafen Lin.- 28. Early childhood education and development in Singapore; Sirene May-Yin Lim.- 29. Vietnam early childhood education; Phan Thi Thu Hien.- 30. Examining early childhood education system in Ghana: How can Bourdieuian theorisation support a transformational approach to pedagogy?; Joseph Agbenyega.- 31. Rising from the ‘ashes’: quality early childhood education as a panacea for national development in Sierra Leone; Eleni Anthinodorou and Joseph Agbenyega.- 32. Early educational practices in Canada and the United States; Artin Göncü1 and Carollee Howes. 33. Early childhood education and care in Canada; Nina Howe, Kathleen Flanagan and Michal Perlman.- 34. Early childhood teacher-child relationships in the United States: theory, practices, and regulation; Sandra Soliday Hong and Promjawan Udommana.- 35. Parent involvement in U.S. early childhood education: benefits, limitations, and reconceptualizations; Angela Pons Clifford and Marisha L. Humphries.- 36. Early childhood education and development in Latin America; Rebeca Mejía-Arauz and Gloria Quiñones.- 37. Educational practices and young children’s socio-moral development: a cultural psychological approach; Angela Uchoa Branco, Angela Rabelo Barreto and Ália Barrios.- 38. Childhood education in Colombia; Francisco José and Rengifo-Herrera.- 39. Early childhood education in Chile; Rodrigo A. Cárcamo.- 40. Early childhood education in Guatemala; María Eugenia Rabbe.- 41. Early childhood education and development in Mexico; Rebeca Mejía-Arauz and Gloria Quiñones<.- 42. Early childhood education in Peru; Susana Frisancho and María Isabel La Rosa.- 43. The Nordic perspective on early childhood education and care; Stig Broström, Johanna Einarsdottir and Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson.- 44. Outdoor education in the Nordic region; Ellen Beate Hansen Sandseter and Olav Bjarne Lysklett.- 45. Toddlers in Nordic early childhood education and care; Anne Greve and Ole Henrik Hansen.- 46. Values in Nordic early childhood education – democracy and the child’s perspective; Anette Emilson and Eva Johansson.

Volume 2

47. New directions in early childhood education practice: international developments and practice gaps; Marilyn Fleer, Feiyan Chen and Bert van Oers.- Section 4: Innovative and Longstanding Programs .- 48. Longstanding and innovative programs in early childhood education: an introduction; Bert van Oers.- 49. Piramide; I.G.M. Koerhuis, M. Boontje, H. van Boxtel, D. Breebaart and M. op den Kamp.- 50. The ‘Golden Key’ program, and its cultural-historical basis; Gennady Kravtsov and Elena Kravtsova.- 51. The program of developmental (narrative) play pedagogy; Pentti Hakkarainen1 and Milda Bredikyte.- 52. The key to learning curriculum; Nikolay Veraksa and Galina Dolya.- 53. Te Whāriki; Ken Blaiklock.- 54. Tools of the mind: a Vygotskian early childhood curriculum; Elena Bodrova1 and Deborah J. Leong.- 55. Developmental Education for young children in the Netherlands: Basic Development; Bea Pompert and Marjolein Dobber.- Section 5: Curriculum and Assessment .- 56. Introduction to the theme of early childhood curriculum and assessment; Geerdina van der Aalsvoort.- 57. Curriculum and assessment in Brazilian early childhood education; Maria Malta Campos.- 58. Review and reflection on the curriculum reform of early childhood education in China; Jiaxiong Zhu and Jie Zhang.- 59. Constructing early childhood curriculum and assessing young children in Israel’s mosaic of cultures; David Brody.- 60. Recent developments in curriculum and assessment in the early years in Australia; Susan Grieshaber.- 61. Supporting the application of playful learning and playful pedagogies in the early years curriculum through observation, interpretation and reflection; Pat Broadhead.- 62. Making the case for playful learning; Hande Ilgaz, Brenna Hassinger-Das, Kathy Hirsch-Pasek and Roberta Michnick Golinkof.- 63. Children’s perspective to curriculum work: meaningful moments in Finnish early childhood education; Lasse Lipponen, Kristiina Kumpulainen and Maiju Paananen.- 64. Assessing young children’s learning and behavior in the classroom; a complexity approach; Henderien Steenbeek and Paul van Geert.- 65. Conclusions and discussion; Geerdina van der Aalsvoort.- Section 6: Pedagogies in early childhood education .- 66. Pedagogies in early childhood education; Niklas Pramling and Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson.- 67. F.A.W. Fröbel 1782–1852; Jan-Erik Johansson.- 68.  Educational tenets of the Highscope curriculum; Ann S. Epstein and Lawrence J. Schweinhart.- 69. Developmentally appropriate practice in the 21st century; Kay Sanders and Flora Farago.- 70. The Waldorf kindergarten; Sara Frödén and Moira von Wright.- 71. Developing the ability of children to use and construct visual models; Nikolay Veraksa and Aleksander Veraksa.- 72. Montessori education; Christina Gustafsson.- 73. Pedagogy has children’s voice — the educational experience of the Reggio Emilia municipal infant-toddler centres and preschools; Claudia Giudici and Paola Cagliari<.- Section 7: Child, Families and Communities .- 74. Introducing reflections; Charlotte Højholt.- 75. Sharing early care: learning from practitioners; Agnes Andenæs and Hanne Haavind.- 76. Children, families, and communities in Brazil: a cultural-ecological approach to child-rearing values and practices; Jonathan R. H. Tudge, Gabriela D. F. Martins, Elisa A. Merçon-Vargas, Letícia L. Dellazzana-Zanon, Cesar A. Piccinini and Lia Freitas.- 77. Children’s cultural learning in everyday family life exemplified at the dinner setting; Mariane Hedegaard.- 78. Domesticating markets: early-years education and middle-class parenting in India; Henrike Donner.- 79. Creatively enhancing community transformation through work with children and families; Fernanda Coelho Liberali and Alzira Shimoura.- 80. Children participating and developing agency in and across various social practices; Charlotte Højholt and Dorte Kousholt.- 81. Towards a posthuman developmental psychology of child, families and communities; Erica Burman.

Marilyn Fleer: Torn between studying psychology and education as an undergraduate, Professor Marilyn Fleer ended up choosing early childhood education, a nascent field that straddled both her areas of interest. She hasn’t looked back since. As soon as she got into early childhood education she enjoyed it, Marilyn says. “I found it intellectually stimulating, and there’s plenty of scope for making a difference with my research.” She is now studying the early stages of concept formation – and how playtime can help promote children’s imagination, and the more ‘rational’ thinking later on as adults. “Imagination, creativity, and games are really important for development. Think of a child at home: they can take an ordinary stick, pretend that it’s a horse, and ‘ride’ on it. What they’ve done is change the meaning of the stick – they’ve used their imagination to think abstractly. It’s one step away from the same child turning the ‘stick’ into a ruler by measuring something with it at school. By using their imagination, they’ve learned to think more abstractly – and therefore become a more successful learner.” With the push for greater outcomes from very young children, particularly in literacy and numeracy, Marilyn’s field of research is gaining public and international interest. 

Bert van Oers (Ph D) is special professor of Cultural-historical Theory of Education at the Department of ‘Research and Theory in Education’ at VU University Amsterdam. He specialized in Cultural-historical activity theory since the 1970s and is now working at a CHAT-based theory of play and playful learning.  His major research interest focusses on the implementation of a play-based curriculum in primary school, and the elaboration and evaluation of Developmental Education. He published about this (among others) in B. van Oers (ed.), Developmental Education for young children. Springer, 2012.