Revised guidelines for Swedish early childhood education that emphasize mathematics content and competencies in more detail than before raise the question of the status of pedagogical mathematical awareness among Swedish early childhood teachers. The purpose of this study is to give an overview of teachers' current pedagogical mathematical…

This case study of undergraduate early childhood education pre-service teachers in an international field experience examines living, working, and studying in a sovereign nation while still "at home" within the United States. In our various roles (researcher, pre-service teacher, faculty mentor), we explored the impact of colonization as…

This article has two aims: (a) to offer a new model for a teacher preparation course that features reflection and teaching as integral, inseparable actions and (b) to provide empirical evidence from an exploratory ethnography to demonstrate teacher development possibilities with this model. The model, termed "Transformative Reflection,"…

Alyssa Conklin-Moore discusses normalization in the child under three from several perspectives. She takes an extensive look at the child, including orienting parents to the Montessori environment, the child's entrance into the environment, addressing the sensitive periods, and fostering independence, contribution, and community. She reminds the…

This article presents some of the findings of a three-year project researching the impact of changes made to teaching and learning in a first-year sociology paper for primary and early childhood education (ece) student teachers. The context of the research is an undergraduate Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programme situated in the School of…

This article is part of a larger exploratory study that followed preservice early childhood teachers through their program and into their first year of practice, giving voice to their understandings of quality teaching and learning, and insight into the ways their preservice program prepared them for the challenges of teaching in diverse settings.…

Recently, the author got to thinking about some of the ideas that have crossed her mind in the last couple of weeks. The list made her smile. And as she went over it point by point in her head she tried to determine what, if any, reasonable or logical patterns were emerging in her myriad of ideas. The four divergent ideas presented in this article…

Critical thinking is an essential skill for learners and teachers alike. Therefore, it is essential that educators be given practical strategies for improving their critical thinking skills as well as methods to effectively provide critical thinking skills to their students. The "Handbook of Research on Critical Thinking and Teacher Education…

In Australian early childhood teacher education programs there is typically a greater focus on the age group of kindergarten children compared to that of infants and toddlers (Garvis, Lemon, Pendergast and Yim, 2013). As a consequence, pre-service teachers may have little opportunity to interact and learn about this important age range. This paper…

Professionalism in the context of early care and education has received considerable attention in recent years (Caulfield, 1997; Harte, 2011; Tigistu, 2013). According to the 2010 National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Standards for Initial & Advanced Early Childhood Professional Preparation Programs, teacher…

In their Bachelor degree, Early Childhood Pre-service teachers undertake art(s)making and online journaling (blogging) to chronicle the process and thinking through the problem of themselves in relation to their world. They express and challenge their own thoughts and ideas regarding their daily lives and those of the children in their future…

The author explores the reflective components of observation, listening, wondering, and response. Together, these components invite parents to discover who their babies are as well as to understand the importance of nurturing relationships, past and present, to development, growth, and change. Of equal interest, reflective practice offers Infant…

This contribution explores the relationship between teaching practices, teaching discourses and teachers' implicit representations and mental models and the way these dimensions change through teacher education (T.E). In order to study these relationships, and based on the assumptions that representations underlie teaching practices and that T.E…

Early childhood classrooms in the US continue to become increasingly diverse as we journey through the twenty first century. Yet and still, many early childhood educators have been slow to respond to these shifts in diversity on the basis of both developmental and political concerns. In this guess editorial, I argue for the integration of…

In this engaging book, the authors share stories from their practice and research about several young children with a variety of developmental delays and disabilities and their teachers. They explore the ways that teachers and children respond in real classrooms to real challenges, examining both those opportunities that are capitalized on as well…