The 'schoolification' of early childhood education and care programs, seen as readying children for formalised schooling, has had an impact on the education of younger and younger age groups. While the focus of past research has mainly focused on 4-5-year-old children, this study shifts the focus to 2-3-year-old children and the literacy focus of…

Educators around the world are increasingly considering and seeking ways to challenge their role in the colonial project. Some have turned to embodied pedagogies as a way to encourage holistic, relationships-based learning in academies which traditionally prioritise cognitive, objective knowing. This review analyses 27 studies, published between…

The research in this volume takes account of the context of policy promoting Chinese as a second language (CSL) in several countries and regions, (Australia, East Asia and South-East Asia), and the wider social context of multilingual and multicultural societies. Furthermore, this book reports results of two research studies which investigated how…

Although studies have investigated the enablers and barriers of digital teaching and learning of STEM, the integration of digital technologies into teaching geometry -- one of the main mathematical concepts, is frequently ignored and does not garner much scholarly attention. To fill this specific gap, this small-scale qualitative study explored…

Expectations for increased conceptual outcomes in the early childhood education sector have foregrounded a need for more evidenced-based practice in support of children's play. One such avenue for researching models of play practices that support cognitive outcomes is to study the implementation of Playworlds. Grounded in cultural-historical…

Research into pedagogical approaches used in early years' nature education, more specifically European and UK forest schools, remains according to Leather, 'undertheorised.' In a similar situation in Australia, the bush kindergarten programmes (referred to as 'bush kinders'), have had limited research attention. Influenced by European and UK…

Recent early childhood education and care (ECEC) reforms across the globe are placing greater emphasis on the intentionality of educators' pedagogy. In Australia, a National Quality Agenda (NQA) has significantly reformed ECEC through the country's first national learning framework, which demands educators take a more intentional (active) role in…

Dramatic play is a typical activity that provides many benefits for preschool children's learning and development. This paper presents the findings of a mixed-method study that examined the level of preschool children's involvement in dramatic play and the connection between this involvement and the quality of the classroom environment. The study…

In response to the perception that climate change is too abstract and its consequences too far-reaching for us to make a difference, recent feminist environmental humanities scholars have drawn attention to connections that can be forged by noticing the intermingling of bodies, relations, materials, places and movements in the world. Inspired by…

The authors present the literacy pedagogical approach LAUNCH and reveal its influence on young learners as engineers of literacy learning through text production. Findings are reported from design-based research in a case study of an Australian early years classroom. Using a qualitative orientation, data were generated from video and audio…

This paper contributes to the Research Symposium, "Strengths approaches in early childhood mathematics education" by providing an illustration of how an early childhood centre adopts a strengths approach to mathematics education for birth to three-year-old children. A case illustration is drawn from a current Australian Research…

In this paper we propose the concept of 'becoming-with' in relation to the experience of the catastrophic fires in the summer of 2019-2020 in Australia, and their implications for research into young children's response to bushfires, and their learning about bushfire recovery, which resulted in the development of an arts-based project to explore…

In addition to its influences across economic, geopolitical, and social spheres, globalization has given rise to the notion of a 'global citizen' who is able to understand a shifting and more internationalized world while moving fluidly through it. Education has been trumpeted as the means to achieve this globally-aware citizenry, leading to an…

The Initiation-Response-Feedback (IRF) talk sequence dominates whole-class talk in school lessons but frequently provides limited talk options for students. This article examines a variant of the sequence produced by young children and their teacher in an early years' classroom. The multiple-response sequences were identified in classroom…

This book provides an introduction to what it means to be numerate, and how numeracy can best be developed and nurtured in children and in adults. It also presents a cohesive coverage of numeracy development from early childhood to adulthood. This book draws on international research and practice to provide a comprehensive overview on the topic.…