ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how the Capability Approach, as outlined by Sen and Nussbaum, challenges the discourse in early childhood education. The chapter has two major sections. The first section presents the Capability Approach as a moral framework focusing on individuals’ well-being and agency. The second section considers how the Capability Approach offers a new way of conceptualizing early childhood education by posing a number of challenges to early childhood professionals. The challenges are in the areas of curriculum, teaching and, assessment and evaluation and are framed as three “What if” questions: What if the Capability Approach provided the normative language for a moral perspective on children’s development and learning for early childhood professionals? What if, based on the Capability Approach, children’s abilities are conceptualized as capabilities rather than as commodities as in a human capital perspective? What if the Capability Approach provided a moral framework for curriculum development, teaching methods, and assessment practices, which address the equality of educational opportunities for children? By addressing these questions, the Capability Approach presents a paradigm for examining the social, political, economic, and cultural influences on early education with the goal of creating sites for equal educational opportunities for all children.
