Early Childhood Curriculum addresses current approaches to curriculum for infants, toddlers and young children, ages birth to eight. It provides a comprehensive introduction to the curriculum issues that student teachers and emerging practitioners will face and equips them with the decision-making tools that will ultimately enhance and promote young children's learning. The text proposes a cultural historical framework to explore diverse approaches to early years education, drawing on research and examples of practice across a range of international contexts. It offers a clear focus on domain areas of the curriculum - the arts, health and wellbeing, literacy and language, science and maths, and information and communication technology - so that teachers are able to gain a breadth of understanding and effectively plan, design and implement curriculum strategy.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; About the authors; Part I: 1. Introduction; 2. Theory, research and the early childhood curriculum; 3. Development and learning - how views on what is development shape how learning is framed; 4. Curriculum as a cultural broker; 5. Interpreting early childhood curriculum; Part II: 6. Enacted curriculum: sociocultural-historical curriculum in action; 7. Curriculum as a conceptual tool: observation, content and programming in early childhood curriculum; 8. Assessing children and evaluating curriculum: shifting lenses; 9. Content knowledge and the early childhood curriculum: the sciences, maths and numeracy; 10. Content knowledge and the early childhood curriculum: language, literacy and the information and communication technologies; 11. Content knowledge and the early childhood curriculum: the arts and health, well being and physical activity; 12. Conclusion.

About the Author

Claire McLachlan is Associate Professor, Early Years Education at Massey University in New Zealand. Marilyn Fleer is a professor of early childhood education at Monash University. Susan Edwards is a lecturer in early childhood education at Monash University.