International Handbook of Early Childhood Education

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xlvi

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2. International Trends in Research: Redressing the North-South Balance in What Matters for Early Childhood Education Research

   • Marilyn Fleer, Bert van Oers

   Pages 1-30

3. Theoretical Perspectives

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 31-31

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   2. Governing Childhood

      • Iris Duhn

      Pages 33-46

   3. Cultural-Historical and Activity Theories Informing Early Childhood Education

      • Marilyn Fleer, Nikolai Veresov

      Pages 47-76

   4. ‘Humpty Dumpty’: Teaching Strategy or Postcolonial Method – What Do We Know About Power, Voice and Identity Within Early Childhood Education in the Twenty-First Century?

      • Karen Martin

      Pages 77-90

   5. Engaging with the Conceptual Tools and Challenges of Poststructural Theories

      • Affrica Taylor

      Pages 91-115

   6. Early Years Education in the Anthropocene: An Ecophenomenology of Children’s Experience

      • Phillip G. Payne

      Pages 117-162

4. Research Methodologies

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 163-163

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   2. (Co)-Researching with Children

      • Alma Fleet, Deborah Harcourt

      Pages 165-201

   3. Policy Analysis and Document Research

      • Chris Peers

      Pages 203-224

   4. A Cultural-Historical Methodology for Researching Early Childhood Education

      • Marilyn Fleer, Nikolai Veresov

      Pages 225-250

   5. Narrative Learning of Literacy

      • Pentti Hakkarainen, Marja-Leena Vuorinen

      Pages 251-267

   6. Mixed Methods in Early Childhood Education

      • Judith Schoonenboom

      Pages 269-293

   7. Current Approaches in Quantitative Research in Early Childhood Education

      • Linda J. Harrison, Cen Wang

      Pages 295-316

5. Contemporary Research and Evidence – Early Childhood Education Globally: Western Europe and UK

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 317-317

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   2. Quality in Early Childhood Education: The Contribution of Developmental Psychology

      • David Whitebread

      Pages 319-334

   3. Neuroscience and Early Childhood Education

      • Lysandra Sinclaire-Harding, Laura Vuillier, David Whitebread

      Pages 335-361

   4. School Readiness in Europe: Issues and Evidence

      • Sue Bingham, David Whitebread

      Pages 363-391

   5. Early Childhood Education with Disadvantaged Children: Actions for Success

      • Marta Soler-Gallart, Ainhoa Flecha

      Pages 393-408

This international handbook gives a comprehensive overview of findings from longstanding and contemporary research, theory, and practices in early childhood education in the Northern and Southern hemispheres. The first volume of the handbook addresses theory, methodology, and the research activities and research needs of particular regions. The second volume examines in detail innovations and longstanding programs, curriculum and assessment, and conceptions and research into child, family and communities. 


The two volumes of this handbook address the current theory, methodologies and research needs of specific countries and provide insight into existing global similarities in early childhood practices. By paying special attention to what is happening in the larger world contexts, the volumes provide a representative overview of early childhood education practices and research, and redress the current North-South imbalance of published work on the subject. 

• early childhood cultural-historical theory
• early childhood education and development
• educational theory, practice and applied scholarship
• early childhood new materialism
• southern and northern continents
• early childhood methodologies
• early childhood research methods
• new practices in early childhood
• early childhood postcolonial theories
• early childhood poststructuralist theories
• early childhood in India
• early childhood in China
• early childhood in Nordic region
• early childhood in the south

• Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

  Marilyn Fleer

• Department of Theory & Research in Education, VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

  Bert van Oers

Marilyn Fleer: Torn between studying psychology and education as an undergraduate, Professor Marilyn Fleer ended up choosing early childhood education, a nascent field that straddled both her areas of interest. She hasn’t looked back since. As soon as she got into early childhood education she enjoyed it, Marilyn says. “I found it intellectually stimulating, and there’s plenty of scope for making a difference with my research.” She is now studying the early stages of concept formation – and how playtime can help promote children’s imagination, and the more ‘rational’ thinking later on as adults. “Imagination, creativity, and games are really important for development. Think of a child at home: they can take an ordinary stick, pretend that it’s a horse, and ‘ride’ on it. What they’ve done is change the meaning of the stick – they’ve used their imagination to think abstractly. It’s one step away from the same child turning the ‘stick’ into a ruler by measuring something with it at school. By using their imagination, they’ve learned to think more abstractly – and therefore become a more successful learner.” With the push for greater outcomes from very young children, particularly in literacy and numeracy, Marilyn’s field of research is gaining public and international interest. 



Bert van Oers (PhD) is special professor of Cultural-historical Theory of Education at the Department of ‘Research and Theory in Education’ at VU University Amsterdam. He specialized in Cultural-historical activity theory since the 1970s and is now working at a CHAT-based theory of play and playful learning.  His major research interest focusses on the implementation of a play-based curriculum in primary school, and the elaboration and evaluation of Developmental Education. He published about this (among others) in B. van Oers (ed.), Developmental Education for young children. Springer, 2012.

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