ABSTRACT
This volume is an important contribution to the field of early childhood studies as it offers a comprehensive look back at the key philosophical traditions and figures that have provided the foundations for many of the established ways we have come to think about children, childhoods and our political, pedagogical and curricular approaches to working in early childhood contexts. This chapter is intended to offer an overview and engagement with more contemporary theoretical approaches that broadly fall under the paradigmatic category of postmodernism. Postmodernism has its origins within literary criticism, cultural studies, politics, sociology and art, and is not concerned to theorize learning per se but rather to provide the critical means by which we might trouble, dismantle, deconstruct and reconfigure commonly held ‘truths’ or taken-for-granted assumptions that we might hold about children and education. This involves a critical engagement with the culture of childhood and a detailed analysis of the institutions and structures that shape childhood – including policy, curriculum frameworks, geopolitical contexts, communities, the family and early years settings themselves.
