ABSTRACT
The study of early childhood at undergraduate level and beyond is relatively new. In setting the scene, we need to recognise the speed of change both within society and also in higher education as we develop programmes that are appropriately challenging for our students. Part of the rationale for this book was to help students look at issues critically and analyse what they actually meant. Within an academic study of this field, many disciplines play a part. I was once asked to define its place in the hierarchy of university degree subjects and that was very difficult. No one discipline predominates in a study of early childhood, nor should it, or we run the risk of dividing children up into segments, claiming bits for each and ignoring the ‘whole child’. At the beginning of our degree programme, the students were always asked to suggest areas of study that they were likely to meet. Psychology and sociology came high on the list, followed by politics, history, religion, law, economics and health. Towards the bottom, and with a little bit of mercilessness, we arrived at archaeology and a discussion of the aspects of childhood that this could bring to light. This chapter also intends to initiate reflection on the ways we find out about other childhoods and how we use this knowledge to build a better understanding of the place of children in our society and elsewhere.
