This article explores how pedagogical documentation, as the refusal of method, can be aligned with post qualitative inquiry, opening up possibilities for refuting dogmas and methods in early childhood pedagogy, theory, practice, and research. It delineates understandings of pedagogical documentation in the educational project of Reggio Emilia, and…

Taoism, one of the oldest Eastern religious systems, has significantly influenced Chinese culture and society. Taoism centers around "The Tao" or "The Way," considered the ultimate source from which everything--both physical and non-physical, living and non-living--originates. It emphasizes inner self-cultivation through…

This article uses two examples from a video-cued ethnography conducted in a Chinese preschool to illustrate the ethical complexities of studying children in cross-cultural settings. Moments that raise ethical concerns also pose methodological questions and challenge the anthropologist's understanding of and sensitivity to the emic perspectives and…

The adoption of interventions for infants and young children with disabilities/delays or at risk of disability/delay is likely to be influenced by sources other than research evidence. Where the available research evidence does influence the choice of intervention, there may be difficulties translating research that has been implemented in a…

The field of early childhood education is propelled by guiding principles stemming from philosophical and child development research positions. While the guiding principles of high-quality early childhood education are influenced by universal and local perspectives, it is critical that early childhood curricula and pedagogy are firmly…

We discuss democratizing knowledge production and dissemination in education illustrated in two parts that challenge the current knowledge monopoly. Our discourse includes (a) problematic cultivation of the status quo in the hierarchy of knowledge value in the U.S. as a component of civic illiteracy and (b) the need for more evidence through…

This paper explores language practice in early childhood education for children new to the majority language, discussing how language practice can be transformed through actions such as reflexive dialogues with educators. In a Swedish action-research project, educators and researchers collaborated in reflexive dialogues to develop language…

The authors bring together decolonial, place attuned, and critical posthumanist orientations to analyze an event during a residential workshop organized as part of a state-funded research project on decolonizing early childhood discourses in South Africa. An invitation during the workshop to grapple with what might be unsettling by attending to…

How does practitioner inquiry impact education? Examining the experiences of practitioners who have participated in inquiry projects, the authors present ways in which this work has enabled educators to be positive change agents. They reveal the difference that practitioner inquiry has made in their professional practice, their understanding of…

Social constructivist theorists tend to identify qualitative educational research as discovering meaning and understanding by the researcher's active involvement in the construction of meaning. Although these approaches have been widely influenced by Vygotsky's social constructivist approach, his own theoretical framework has received…

Teacher research yields a plethora of insights about creating a meaningful curriculum for children. In this article, we describe the experience of preschool children who participated in Kindergarten Club, a space that afforded them opportunities to shift roles from being preschoolers to being kindergarteners. Kindergarten Club became a catalyst…

This article discusses a teacher educator's reflections on her participation in an international study group and visits to the infant-toddler and pre-schools of Reggio Emilia, Italy, as inspiration for early childhood teacher education in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The following five themes are reflected on, for teacher education in the context of Abu Dhabi:…

The purpose of this paper is to challenge the habitual anthropocentric gaze we use when analysing educational data, which takes human beings as the starting point and centre, and gives humans a self-evident higher position above other matter in reality. By enacting analysis of photographic images from a preschool playground, using a "relational…

Through "teacher research", teachers engage in the systematic study of their own practice to answer questions they have about teaching and learning, and their own effectiveness. This book explores what teacher research in the early childhood setting looks like, why it is important to the field of early childhood education, and how…

Theory-driven and practice-driven research are often separated, but in this article we shall argue for a research approach that is theory-driven but practice-oriented and shares features with the specific kind of early childhood education pedagogy this research approach has generated, what we refer to as developmental pedagogy (Pramling Samuelsson…