The early childhood services of Reggio Emilia in Northern Italy has gained worldwide interest and admiration. Drawing on the Reggio approach, and others, this book explores the ethical and political dimensions of early childhood services and argues the importance of these dimensions at a time when they are often reduced to technical and managerial projects, without informed consideration for what is best for the child.

Extending and developing the ideas raised in Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Care and Education the successful team of authors make a wide range of...

Contributors to this volume begins from the assumption that the changes wrought by globalization compel us to reflect upon the status of the child and childhood at the end of the 20th century. The essays in the book consider what techniques are used to govern the child, what role the family plays, what is global and what is currently specific in the changes, and how the subject is constructed and construed.

Contributors to this volume begin from the assumption that the changes wrought by globalization compel us to reflect upon the status of the child and childhood at the end of the 20th century. The essays in the book consider what techniques are used to govern the child, what role the family plays, what is global and what is currently specific in the changes, and how the subject is constructed and construed.

Taking a broad approach, Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care relates issues of early childhood to the sociology of childhood, philosophy, ethics, political science and other fields and to an analysis of the world we live in today. It places these issues in a global context and draws on work from Canada, Sweden and Italy, including the world famous nurseries in Reggio Emilia.
Working with postmodern ideas, this book questions the search to define and measure quality in the early childhood field and its tendency to reduce philosophical issues of value to purely technical and...