Quality in early childhood services (day care or nursery education) can be a contentious issue, with as many perspectives as there are interested parties. Children, parents, staff, politicians and community representatives all contribute their views to the topic. In a previous volume, "Valuing Quality in Early Childhood Services", the authors concluded that there was a need to develop creative and inclusionary processes for the definition and attainment of quality. The book seeks to respond to this need. Conveying the debate, confrontation, exchange of experience and empowerment that are central to quality developments, the authors argue that the future lies in a range of disciplines and discourses, and within a broad policy context that pays attention to children, families, employment and community development.
Author(s): Gunilla Dahlberg; Peter Moss; Alan R Pence
Year: 1999
Language: English
Pages: 216
Book Cover......Page 1
Half-Title......Page 2
Title......Page 3
Copyright......Page 4
Contents......Page 5
Acknowledgments......Page 6
The Language of Early Childhood......Page 8
The Age of ‘Quality’…......Page 10
…and the Problem with Quality......Page 12
Asking Critical Questions......Page 13
The Times in which We Live......Page 15
Why ‘Early Childhood Institutions’?......Page 17
Meadow Lake, Reggio and Stockholm: Working the Tension between Theory and Practice......Page 18
Minorities and Majorities......Page 21
What Can We Do?......Page 23
Notes......Page 24
The Project of Modernity......Page 26
The Project of Postmodernity......Page 29
Linear Progress, Legitimation and Representation......Page 31
Both Modernity and Postmodernity......Page 33
Foucault, Discipline and Power......Page 35
The Powerful Role of Developmental Psychology......Page 42
An Ethics of an Encounter......Page 45
Notes......Page 49
Introduction......Page 50
The Child as Knowledge, Identity and Culture Reproducer......Page 51
The Child as an Innocent, in the Golden Age of Life......Page 52
The Child as Labour Market Supply Factor......Page 53
The Child as a Co-constructer of Knowledge, Identity and Culture......Page 55
Childhood and Pedagogy in Conditions of Modernity......Page 59
Childhood and Pedagogy in Postmodern Conditions......Page 61
Note......Page 68
Introduction......Page 70
Producer and Business......Page 71
The Early Childhood Institution, the Nation State and Capitalism......Page 75
Civil Society......Page 78
Forums in Civil Society......Page 81
The Early Childhood Institution as a Forum in Civil Society......Page 82
The Projects of the Early Childhood Institution......Page 83
Forums, not Substitute Homes......Page 89
What Place for the Future and for Interventions?......Page 90
Introduction......Page 94
Enlightenment Thinking and Trust in Numbers......Page 95
The Emergence of the Discourse of Quality......Page 96
Gaining Control and Coping with Uncertainty......Page 98
Constructing the Concept of Quality......Page 100
Quality, Customer Satisfaction and Public Services......Page 102
The Discourse of Quality in Early Childhood......Page 104
Developmental Psychology and the Discourse of Quality......Page 106
Developmental Psychology and Quality in Crisis......Page 109
Beyond Quality to Meaning Making......Page 110
The Discourse of Meaning Making......Page 112
Evaluation and the Discourse of Meaning Making......Page 117
Conditions and Frameworks......Page 120
The Great Bugbear of Relativism......Page 123
Notes......Page 126
The Inspiration of Reggio......Page 128
The Swedish Connection......Page 130
Starting Up......Page 133
The Design and Organization of the Project......Page 134
A Changing Horizon of Expectations—A New Space, a New Becoming and a New Hope?......Page 137
Networking......Page 141
The Researcher and the Project Leaders as Co-constructors......Page 146
Some Provisional Understandings......Page 148
Notes......Page 149
Pedagogical Documentation as a Practice to Encourage a Reflective and Democratic Pedagogical Practice......Page 150
Pedagogical Documentation is not Child Observation......Page 152
What is Pedagogical Documentation?......Page 153
Pedagogical Documentation as a Learning Process......Page 154
Pedagogical Documentation as Challenging the Dominant Discourses......Page 158
The Process of Documentation Can Never Be Neutral......Page 160
An Ethics of an Encounter......Page 161
Opening Up a Forum......Page 163
Introduction......Page 166
Many Worlds......Page 173
Meadow Lake and the University: ‘What of us is in here?’......Page 175
The Potential of Not-Knowing......Page 176
A Space for Learning......Page 178
Starting with Principles......Page 180
Including Community......Page 181
All Learners, All Teachers......Page 182
Ivory Towers and Fairy Tales......Page 183
Learning Evolving......Page 184
Elders’ Words......Page 186
Evaluation as Practical Wisdom......Page 187
Worlds Beyond......Page 189
Note......Page 192
References......Page 194
Index......Page 206
