ABSTRACT
This chapter argues the need to develop a relational, sociological approach that explains the early learning and educational experiences of young children. It begins by reviewing some of the contemporary trends in Early Childhood Education and Care, before focusing on some of the major sociological approaches to childhood that have been used to understand the socialization and education of young children. The chapter applies Bourdieu’s relational concepts of field and internalized dispositions in habitus as an important theoretical framework for developing a sociology of early childhood education. The primary habitus is the set of dispositions one acquires in early childhood, slowly and imperceptibly, through familial immersion, where young children initially derive modes of thinking and types of dispositions from their parents or carers. Only a few researchers have examined young children’s peer groups and capital accumulation in early childhood institutions from a Bourdieusian framework.
