Glenda MacNaughton

Feminist Praxis and the Gaze in the Early Childhood Curriculum

ABSTRACT Traditional approaches to curriculum development in early childhood education derive from modernist developmental understandings of the child. The article argues that such understandings of the child can support patriarchal gender relations by skewing the teachers gaze and that reconstructing the teachers gaze is central to feminist pedagogical praxis in early childhood education. One early childhood teachers struggle to reconstruct her gaze via feminist readings of the child is used to explore the possibilities and challenges of working for feminist reconstructions in the early childhood curriculum.

Beyond ‘Othering’: Rethinking Approaches to Teaching Young Anglo-Australian Children about Indigenous Australians

Current early childhood literature concerning anti-racist and multicultural education discusses the importance of adopting a curriculum framework to counter the development of prejudice and racism in young children. This article draws on two separate research projects in Victoria, Australia that explore how this might best be done. One project was concerned with exploring young childrens understandings of indigenous Australians and their cultures and the other investigated teaching practices of a group of early childhood practitioners with indigenous Australians and their cultures. The results from these two projects are compared in order to explore some current issues in adopting curriculum frameworks that counter the development of prejudice and racism in young Anglo-Australian children towards Australias indigenous peoples and cultures.

The politics of logic in early childhood research: A case of the brain, hard facts, trees and rhizomes

This paper engages with questions of logic and its politics to explore how those of us in early childhood education can become critical consumers of ‘brain research’. The research truths we use to construct classroom practices decide the meanings of our actions, thoughts and feelings and our interactions with children. Following Foucault (1980), I see these truths as intimately connected with power and its effects on us.

Who's Got the Power? Rethinking Gender Equity Strategies in Early Childhood.

Abstract This article uses a case‐study of boys’ and girls’ block play in 10 Australian early childhood centres to critically appraise current approaches to gender equity in the early childhood curriculum. The case‐study describes how patriarchal gender relations were created and maintained between boys and girls in their block play, how teachers responded to these relationships and how children responded to teacher challenges to their gender relations. The article discusses the ‘failure’ of several strategies used by the teachers to produce changes in childrens gender relations and how feminist post‐structuralist reconceptualisations of gender equity work have the potential to produce more effective strategies for teachers wishing to challenge patriarchal gender relations between young children

Silences and Subtexts of Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Children

A ustralia, destination of numerous and varied immigrants, has developed some of the most diverse immigration programs in theworld, and debates about these programs are a ”permanent feature of the Australian political landscape” (Hage, 1998, p. 15). This article inserts young children’s voices into these debates by recounting conversations with immigrant and nonimmigrant Australian 4and 5-year-old children who have participated in the Preschool Equity and Social Diversity (PESD) project (see Appendix). The conversations explore the complexities that both immigrant and nonimmigrant children face in building an identity in a multicultural Australian society. The author then raises questions about these children’s capacity to build an identity free from the nation’s political past. Such questions invite discussion about how early childhood staff can help young children construct positive identities in a world where international migration is an enduring reality.

Promoting Gender Equity for Young Children in the South and South East Asian Region

Abstract This article examines the status of current policies aimed at promoting gender equity for young children in the South and South East Asian Region. It details the main themes and concerns within these policies and argues that there is still considerable work to be done before gender equity programmes fully permeate all aspects of the delivery systems of education for young children. In conclusion ten elements for successful gender equity programmes are outlined as a basis for developing a strong strategic approach to gender equity within the region.

Reflections on a Redefined Early Childhood Practicum

Abstract This paper reports the processes and outcomes involved in reconceptualising the practicum experience at the School of Early Childhood Studies, University of Melbourne. The foci of the changes were acknowledging individual stages of student development, ensuring a clearer focus in the process of supervision and redefining the roles of the triad involved in this supervision. Subsequent evaluations indicated that triadic assessment procedures and a competency‐based focus for supervision and assessment achieved the initial goals, with the more recent evaluations suggesting directions for further enhancement of the early childhood practicum.

BEYOND QUALITY, ADVANCING SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EQUITY: INTERDISCIPLINARY EXPLORATIONS OF WORKING FOR EQUITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

In this chapter, we used a research-based case study titled “The Desirable Prince Meeting” to explore how interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives on the child can be used to prompt critical reflection on socially just equity praxis in early childhood education. We argue that using multiple theoretical perspectives to analyze teaching and learning can generate and drive critical reflection on equity praxis more effectively than using a single perspective that presents a single truth about teaching and learning moments.