Multiple Early Childhood Identities Thinking About Pedagogy in Early Childhood Education Series

Recognising multiple cultural, ethical and geographical influences which impact on the development of a child?s identity, this insightful text explores the role of early childhood practitioners and settings in nurturing and navigating the child?s sense of being and belonging.

Multiple Early Childhood Identies confronts the diverse factors which influence early identity-formation to emphasise the child?s understanding of self, outsiders? projections and the messages communicated by educators, family members and the wider community as critical to a child?s identity and wellbeing. Written to provoke group discussion and extend thinking, this text also provides opportunities for international comparison, points for reflection and editorial provocations and will help students engage critically with the concept of identity-formation and influencing factors. Chapters are divided into four key sections which reflect major influences on practice and pedagogy:

• Being alongside children
• Those who educate
• Embedding families and communities
• Working with systems

Offering in-depth discussion of the diverse perspectives, experiences and practices which impact on the formation of the child?s identity, this text will enhance understanding, support self-directed learning and provoke and transform thinking at both graduate and postgraduate levels, particularly in the field of early childhood education and care, for students, educators, integrated service providers and policy makers.

List of tables List of figures About the Series Editors and Contributors Preface - Finding purpose and direction Acknowledgments SECTION ONE: Being alongside children Chapter 1: Surviving in a post conflict zone: Through the eyes of young children Chapter 2: The ‘troublemakers’: Emerging reflections on the identities of young children living on the streets of Mumbai, India Chapter 3: Seeing through Pedagogical Documentation Editorial provocations: Engaging readers and extending thinking SECTION TWO: Those who educate Chapter 4: Interwoven identities in infant and toddler education and care: "What do you think babies will do with clay? Make pots?!" Chapter 5: Peeling away the red apple: Seeing anew images shaping teachers’ identities Chapter 6 The role of the reflective activist in nurturing children’s learner identity Editorial provocations: Engaging readers and extending thinking SECTION THREE: Embedding families and communities Chapter 7: Identity as catalyst, childhood as context: Family, school & community collaborations for a situated early childhood pedagogy Chapter 8: "You look like a boy": Narratives of gender and implications for early childhood pedagogy Chapter 9: Malaysian-Chinese parents’ negotiation of identities as their children begin early childhood education and care in Malaysia and Australia Editorial provocations: Engaging readers and extending thinking SECTION FOUR: Working with systems Chapter 10: Exploring constructions of children’s identity and childhood in the global South from a policy perspective Chapter 11: Looking back in anger: The impact of domestic violence and abuse on the mother and child relationship Chapter 12 How Muslim women negotiate systems of motherhood in two cultures Editorial provocations: Engaging readers and extending thinking Coda: Thinking forward Index

Andi Salamon lectures in Early Childhood Education and Care at Australian Catholic University, Australia.

Angela Chng is Head, Professional Practices and Development for NTUC First Campus, Singapore.