Striving only for material wealth is incompatible with our latent personal longing for love and recognition. Simons discourse identifies a remedy available to all of us, that of adopting an attitude of love, and then putting that love into action in whatever way is open to each of us. We admire and appreciate those among us who overcome the natural impulse toward individual comfort. Currently, the organization of Doctors Without Borders, people who have eschewed financial gain and devoted ...

Early childhood education and care is a major policy issue for national governments and international organisations. This book contests two stories, both infused by neoliberal thinking, that dominate early childhood policy making today - ‘the story of quality and high returns’ and ‘the story of markets’, stories that promise high returns on investment if only the right technologies are applied to children and the perfection of a system based on competition and individual choice.But...

Challenging dominant discourses in the field of early childhood education, this book provides an accessible introduction to some of the alternative narratives and diverse perspectives that are increasingly to be heard in this field, as well as discussing the importance of paradigm, politics and ethics.Peter Moss draws on material published in the groundbreaking Contesting Early Childhood series to introduce readers to thinking that questions the mainstream approach to earl...

What should be the relationship between early childhood and compulsory education? What can they learn from one another and by working together?The rapid expansion of early childhood education and care means that most children in affluent countries now have several years at pre-school before compulsory education. This raises an important question about the relationship between the two. Whilst it’s widely assumed that the former should prepare children for the latter, there ...

First published in 1991, Managing Mothers (now with a new preface by the authors) provides a detailed, authoritative inside story of the lives of parents, and particularly mothers, who return to work after the birth of a first child. It is based on a study of couples who have combined the transition to parenthood with two full-time jobs in the labour market. The authors provide extensive personal accounts from interviews and statistical data that shed light on the experience and s...

Viewing children as 'experts in their own lives', the Mosaic approach offers a creative framework for understanding young children's perspectives through talking, walking, making and reviewing material with an adult. This book demonstrates how children's views and experiences can stay in focus in early childhood provision. The multi-method approach brings together digital tools with interviewing and observation to enable adults to review current practice and implement change with children....

What is education, what is it for and what are its fundamental values? How do we understand knowledge and learning? What is our image of the child and the school? How does the ever more pressing need to develop a more just, creative and sustainable democratic society affect our responses to these questions?Addressing these fundamental issues, Fielding and Moss contest the current mainstream dominated by markets and competition, instrumentality and standardisation, managerialism and...

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 ...

Neoliberalism, with its worldview of competition, choice and calculation, its economisation of everything, and its will to govern has ‘sunk its roots deep’ into Early Childhood Education and Care. This book considers its deeply detrimental impacts upon young children, families, settings and the workforce. Through an exploration of possibilities for resistance and refusal, and reflection on the significance of the coronavirus pandemic, Roberts-Holmes and Moss provide hope that neoliberalism...

For 50 years, researchers at UCL’s Thomas Coram Research Unit have been undertaking ground-breaking policy-relevant social research. Their main focus has been social issues affecting children, young people and families, and the services provided for them. Social Research for our Times brings together different generations of researchers from the Unit to share some of the most important results of their studies. Two sections focus on the main findings and conclusions from research ...

Guidelines for Design of Low-Rise Buildings Subjected to Lateral Forces is a concise guide that identifies performance issues, concerns, and research needs associated with low-rise buildings. The book begins with an introduction that discusses special problems with low-rise buildings subjected to wind and earthquakes. Chapter 2 examines probabilistic methods and their use in evaluating risks from natural hazards. It also addresses the characteristics of wind and seismic forces and levels o...

Social pedagogy is an innovative discipline that supports children's upbringing and overall development by focusing on the child as a whole person. It has been described as where education and care meet or as 'education in its broadest sense'.This book provides a comprehensive overview of the theory, principles and practice of social pedagogy and the profession of social pedagogue. With chapters from leading international contributors, it outlines the roots of social pedagogy and i...