ABSTRACT
Consuming and producing knowledge of children and of early childhood education is part of the everyday business of early childhood studies. The everyday language, ethics, routines, rituals, practices, expectations, ideas, documents and invocations of quality in early childhood services are formed through and motivated by very particular understandings of children and how best to educate them. Over time, some of this knowledge has settled so firmly into the fabric of early childhood studies that its familiarity makes it just seem ‘right’, ‘best’ and ‘ethical’. Also over time, new understandings of children and how best to educate them have persistently emerged to unsettle the familiar. In between the new and the familiar are competing and contested understandings of what is ‘best’, ‘right’ and ‘ethical’ for children, and these understandings bring choices: choices about which knowledge is ‘best’ and ‘right’ to form and motivate the everyday business of early childhood. How can and should we make these choices?
