New directions in early childhood education practice: international developments and practice gaps

Understanding children’s development in the context of the practices of teachers, curriculum writers and governments interested in young children has always been complicated, dynamic and diverse. In Volume 2 of this handbook, a global picture of this complexity is presented in terms of innovative and long-standing early childhood programs, curriculum and assessment practices, pedagogy and diverse conceptualisations of child, family and communities. Two central questions drove the analysis of the content reported in this volume: What and how are practices being developed in early childhood education settings? What and how are new directions and insights in research and practice being paved for children’s development in families and communities? As will be shown in this first chapter of Volume 2 of the handbook, models of curricula, assessment and pedagogy appear to be based on fundamentally different conceptions of child development, the role of the teacher, what is play and how children are positioned within or across the family and early childhood setting. As might be expected in an international analysis, long-standing and contemporary models of early childhood practice should speak directly to plurality. However, through an analysis of early childhood practices across countries from the perspective of the northern and southern hemispheres, a very different picture emerges. The findings suggest that first, the dominant early childhood education models and practices have come from Eastern and Western European countries, many of which have been adopted in countries in the southern hemisphere. It is argued that this colonising act is due in part to the dominant modes of communication through English journals and established networks that inform what counts as an innovative program, curriculum or pedagogical practice. Second, the analysis shows an emerging global trend for re-conceptualising child development dialectically to include family and community who are also in a process of development, rather than to attribute child development to just the child or as the result of an early childhood program. These findings, in addition to what is reported in Volume 1 of this Handbook, seek to make a scholarly contribution to moving the compass from the Northern and the Southern hemispheres. This volume leaves room for more localised models and practices from the global South that speak differently to what and how early childhood practices are regularly conceptualised and promoted.