Daniel J Walsh

DOI: Vol.19(No.2) 1-1, 2013

A serious challenge facing academic disciplines is that, at any given moment, the discourse of a discipline is often dominated by a few perspectives. These dominant perspectives, which may be useful at the moment, often crowd out other perspectives. The result is that thinking in the discipline stagnates as new and interesting ideas are marginalized, or simply ignored. Disciplines develop through lively discussion, from dissent, from arguments, from the competition of ideas, not from agreement or orthodoxy. In our field, to give one example, for decades Piagetian theory kept other developmental perspectives from being taken seriously. Not until scholars like the great Margaret Donaldson (1978) challenged Piaget`s view of young children did the field become freed to move in different directions, which it has done, if slowly. In recent years, I have begun to look back on powerful ideas that have strongly influenced my research and teaching, but that have never received the attention that I believe they deserve. This special issue of the International Journal of Early Childhood Education explores a few of these important overlooked ideas in early childhood. Important is probably not the right adjective. These ideas are profoundly fertile. The ideas no doubt reflect my own preferences, and some common themes wind their way through all the articles. They do, nevertheless, deserve to become part of the ongoing conversation in the field. I believe that taking these ideas seriously can open the field up to new ways of thinking, to new paths to follow. As noted above, the strength of a field depends less on the agreement within the field than on the disagreements. The hope is to contribute a little to the disagreements in the field of Early Childhood Education.

Teresa Vasconcelos

DOI: Vol.19(No.2) 1-13, 2013

This essay explores the awareness of the loss of a sense of community at every level in Western societies. Using an incident in a Lisbon subway involving a grandfather and his grandson, I argue the need to move the child away from the “center” and back to his communities. I contest and deconstruct child-centered discourse and affirm the importance of a community discourse for the development of Dewey`s “whole child.” Communities are a common good, complex wholes, ethical sites, places for an intricate world of interactions. Community life provides a high order of moral and intellectual reasoning. The musical metaphor of an orchestra is used to demonstrate the need for a revitalized community where the child is a central part but not at the “center.”

child centered discourse, community discourse, learning communities, activity theory

Sachiko Bamba , Daniel J Walsh

DOI: Vol.19(No.2) 15-27, 2013

The concept of Ibasho comes from Japanese psychology. Ibasho (eeBAHsho) (Bamba, 2010; Bamba & Haight, 2009, 2011), refers to a place where a person feels a sense of peace, security, satisfaction, acceptance, belonging, and coziness (Hujitake, 2000; Sumida, 2003). We argue that early childhood educators should take this concept seriously. For the good of young children, and society, early schooling must be a place where children feel welcomed and accepted, where they can create their Ibasho.

Ibasho, interdependence, anshin, mimamori, belonging

Gary Glen Price

DOI: Vol.19(No.2) 29-43, 2013

The author begins by restating his suggestion of 1982 to uncouple adults` efforts to teach from their expectations for soon-following mastery by children. He then associates that teach earlier, expect later proposal with a longstanding tradition in early childhood education of pedagogical patience. Tying that tradition to an ancient and even broader educational practice, propaedeutics, he proposes and discusses propaedeutic appropriateness as a standard by which to both legitimate and evaluate propaedeutic activities.

pedagogical, patience, developmental, propaedeutic, appropriateness, teach, expect, executive functions, trajectories, standards

Kyung Hwa Lee

DOI: Vol.19(No.2) 45-55, 2013

Drawing on Bruner`s (1996) notions of folk psychology and folk pedagogy, I discuss in this article how the two prevalent discourses of individualized education and independence reflecting middle-class European-American beliefs about individualism and the independent self are culturally constrained. I argue that early childhood teachers and teacher educators tend to take these discourses for granted instead of taking up the examination of their cultural constraints. I conclude with the implications of this discussion for early schooling in two aspects, including learning from multiple relationships and moving beyond surveillance and management.

independent self, folk theories, individualized education, independence

Daniel J Walsh

DOI: Vol.19(No.2) 57-71, 2013

Schooling is embedded in culture, and teaching is an inherently and intensely cultural act. This article explores the inherently cultural nature of teaching and suggests ways to make an understanding of culture central to teaching.

culture, teaching, values, beliefs, shaping, compression

Hyun Jin Kim

DOI: Vol.19(No.2) 73-92, 2013

This study examined the predictors of prosocial behavior among children with and without disabilities attending an inclusive preschool program and those attending a university laboratory preschool program. Data were gathered from 81 preschool children and their teachers, all of whom were participating in an ongoing longitudinal research project in the Midwest, US. The results showed that there were mean differences in prosocial behaviors and teacher-child close relationships by disability type and program type. However, when analyzing children without disabilities, there were no mean differences in prosocial behaviors and teacher-child close relationship by program type. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that a child`s disability status and the teacher-child relationship were significant predictors of children`s prosocial behavior. Specifically, a close teacher-child relationship was a positive predictor of children`s prosocial behavior among children with and without disabilities. The educational implications were discussed with regard to the future directions in this area of the study.

prosocial behavior, disabilities, teacher-child relationship, inclusive preschool