MACMILLAN Rethinking Readiness in Early Childhood Education: Implications for Policy and Practice (Critical Cultural Studies of Childhood)

This book challenges traditional conceptions of readiness in early childhood education by sharing concrete examples of practice, policy and histories that rethink readiness. This book seeks to reimagine possible new educational worlds for young children. Review “Rethinking Readiness in Early Childhood Education offers readers the chance to reflect on traditional notions of what it means to be prepared for kindergarten. In doing so, it compels its audience to reassess the aims of early learning experiences as well as the extent to which diverse learners and their needs are valued and addressed.” (Rebecca Blazar Lebowitz, Harvard Educational Review, Vol. 86 (3), 2016) Review "In assembling a dazzling array of international authors engaged in rethinking readiness in early childhood education, Iorio and Parnell stimulate readers to re-imagine readiness that includes all its complexities, ambiguities, and paradoxical nature. The chapters encourage critical review of long-held assumptions and encourage new ways of reconceptualizing from a strong theoretical base. Viewing readiness from the perspectives of teachers, children, and parents, each chapter gives us new insight into this important educational policy issue." - Nicola Yelland, Professor and Director of Research in the College of Education, Victoria University, Australia"The rhetoric and so-called 'reforms' of education for our youngest children are deeply problematic, but insidiously so when the goals, narrowly defined as what makes children 'ready' for school, are based in deficit-laden concepts of childhood and learners. Such are the revelations by Iorio, Parnell, and colleagues in Rethinking Readiness in Early Childhood Education with its collection of original analyses that not only reframe how we ought to think about teaching children, but also showcase innovative approaches to doing so. Anyone concerned about early childhood education, and about young children in general, should read and discuss this important new book." - Kevin Kumashiro, author of Bad Teacher!: How Blaming Teachers Distorts the Bigger Picture (2012) About the Author William Ayers, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA Robert Bastien, Public Health Agency, Canada Anne Bauer, Aquatic Park School, USA Dana Frantz Bentley, Buckingham Browne and Nichols School, USA Marianne Bloch, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA Lynn Cohen, USA Sue Dockett, Charles Sturt University, Australia Tonia Durden, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA Lorraine Falchi, La Escuelita, USA Dana E. Friedman, USA Jennifer Weiss Friedman, La Escuelita, USA Michelle Grant-Groves, USA Koeun Kim, Northwest Missouri State University, USA Linda Laidlaw, University of Alberta, Canada. Sheri Leafgren, Miami University, USA Joanne Lehrer, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada Julie Nicholson, Mills College, USA Joanne O'Mara, Deakin University, Australia Karen Ortiz, Helios Education Foundation, USA Bob Perry, Charles Sturt University, Australia Lacey Peters, Hunter College, City University of New York, USA Susan L. Recchia, Columbia University, USA Heather J. Pinedo-Burns, Columbia University, USA Elizabeth Quintero, California State University, Channel Islands, USA Beth Blue Swadener, Arizona State University, USA Ristyn Woolley, USA Suzanna So-Har Wong, University of Alberta, Canada