ABSTRACT

Despite vast possible differences across geographic locations, cultural practices, community values, and curricular priorities, there are everyday events that are intimately familiar in the context of early childhood care and education centres. By attending to the daily events that are often overlooked and considerably under-theorized, this insightful text highlights the complexity of the everyday in early childhood settings. Contributions to this edited collection are organized to follow the chronology of a school day; each chapter draws upon post-foundational theories and empirical qualitative data in order to (re)examine a familiar routine within an early years centre, such as walking down the hallway, eating a snack, napping, or changing one’s clothing. The authors argue for a mundane early childhood praxis that attends to the pedagogical possibilities within the seemingly unremarkable and highlights its importance, especially during what are understood to be unprecedented times.

This book will be of interest to advanced practitioners, graduate students, and scholars, and for use in courses in early childhood education, childhood studies, and educational foundations.

chapter 1|11 pages

Unlocking/Lights On

Attending to the every/day

chapter 2|10 pages

Welcoming

Acts of (be)coming together

chapter 3|12 pages

Washing Up

Handwashing as an embodied practice in preschool bathrooms

chapter 4|12 pages

Snack Time

The "both/and" of an in-between praxis

chapter 5|13 pages

(Un)Dressing

An ethical consideration of children's participation in dressing to be outside

chapter 6|9 pages

Queuing and Waiting

Reconceptualising the still, silent line

chapter 7|12 pages

Moving through the Hallway

More-than-human relations in liminal spaces

chapter 8|11 pages

Going Outside–Going Inside

Negotiating cultural complexities and tensions

chapter 9|12 pages

Eating Lunch

Toddlers' lunchtime entanglements

chapter 10|10 pages

Toileting

Entanglements of curriculum and care in the toddler classroom

chapter 11|10 pages

Sleeping and Resting

Encounters with sleep/time

chapter 12|11 pages

Tidying-Up

Rethinking "ryddetid" as democratic practices in early childhood institutions

chapter 13|7 pages

Goodbyes

Theorising fleeting disconnections

chapter 14|7 pages

Locking Up/Lights Off

Envisioning a mundane early childhood praxis