Reviewed by Jennie Lindon, psychologist and early years consultant This book highlights the context of learning through exploration of the cultural backdrop to priorities and approaches for early education. The main contrasts are drawn from the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
Writers cover significant issues in the role of a supportive adult and bringing together different professionals to provide genuinely supportive educational experiences. Some chapters offer useful observational examples.
There are insights into how theoretical perspectives shape early education and the extent to which both children and adults are busy making meaning of any situation.
Some specialists who contributed to the book can, as one chapter expresses it, 'lose their jargon' when writing in another context. It is therefore ironic that a book that is so strong on socio-cultural context and power relations, demonstrates minimal awareness of the sub-text created by the language of academic discourse, with embedded assumptions about shared concepts within the co-construction of professional knowledge. And, yes, that last sentence was deliberate.