This article generates two dialogical theorisations of young children's encounters in more-than-human worlds involving metaphor. The first theorisation devises metaphor as an entry point into the dialogues of more-than-humans and includes rare attention to metaphors as multimodal intra-action. The second theorisation provides an alternative to…

In recent years, North Carolina has engaged in efforts to improve the transition to kindergarten process for children, families, and teachers across the state. These efforts include the launch of North Carolina's Transition to Kindergarten Pilot project in 2018 and activities funded by the state's Preschool Development Grant Birth to Age 5 (NC's…

A facility dog in a school is a comparatively recent category of working dog. These dogs typically are trained at the assistance, or service dog, level and are thoroughly prepared for their role. The school facility dog accompanies an owner/handler, who is a professional employee of the school, to work on a regular basis. Research on human-canine…

This article examines the unfolding joy in young children's literacy practices in a Finnish early years classroom. We focus on the unfolding of joy in intra-action among children, adults and materials during literacy learning endeavours by thinking with "new" materialist theories, and the data from an early years multiliteracies project…

Across development, young children reason about why social inequities exist. However, when left to their own devices, young children might engage in "internal thinking," reasoning that the inequity is simply a justified disparity explained by features internal to social groups (e.g., genetics, intellect, abilities, values). Internal…

Young children's voices have been nearly absent in the study of belonging during the early years. In this article, we propose a more inclusive understanding about "how" to study belonging, as well as "what else" must be studied in early childhood education. The importance of conducting research "with" young children…

Early experiences in STEM education can contribute to positive cognitive development in young children. When students have the opportunities to play, inquire, follow their interests/curiosities, develop STEM identities, be creative, and operate within concrete/contextualized STEM explorations, they will experience expansive cognitive growth.…

The debates about what are the most effective ways to teach young children to learn to read have been described as 'the reading wars'. In 2022 the research published in a paper by Wyse and Bradbury (2022) stimulated widespread attention including in the media. Wyse and Bradbury concluded on the basis of four major research analyses that although…

The third decade of the 21st century has seen a focus emerge on the agentic practices of writers, focusing on what, how and why people write. While considerable research has been conducted on school-age writing practices, there is still limited insight into the writing practices of children outside of school or formal education settings. This…

In the literature in recent years, a number of developmental studies have demonstrated the importance of children entering the school environment with a solid foundation of mathematical content knowledge and argued that problem solving, as an important mathematical process, should be acknowledged in early childhood mathematical education. However,…

Computational models of reading have tended to focus on the cognitive requirements of mapping among written, spoken, and meaning representations of individual words in adult readers. Consequently, the alignment of these computational models with behavioural studies of reading development has to date been limited. Models of reading have provided us…

How do educators talk about trauma with young children? Specifically, how do they address children's secondhand experiences of crimes against humanity? In this article, Cara E. Furman argues that classrooms for young children must witness these experiences. A genre of picture books that Furman terms "eavesdropping texts" offer testimony…

Though there has been a marked increase in research driven by posthumanist theory and inspired by the common worlds research approach, practical approaches to conducting this type of research have not been well documented and shared within the literature. This article explores the process of navigating the planning and conducting of research that…

Scholars of early childhood education have urged qualitative researchers to adapt their methods for use with young children. However, unjust social imaginations of childhood (e.g., who is considered a "child") play out in qualitative research, particularly for young children who are made most vulnerable by intersecting oppressions (e.g.,…

Amid COVID-19, children's interactions with pet animals in the household were at times strengthened, strained, or established anew. Extensive periods of confinement made the home environment not only the site for most family activities but also the hub for children's school and many adults' work. Research on the role of pets during the pandemic…