ABSTRACT
This first chapter of Part III draws together the critiques presented so far to take up the challenge of addressing how children develop within diverse class and geographical contexts, including how to avoid reproducing the problems identified within the available models. The chapter brings together the arguments made in earlier chapters, that address the exclusionary character of Euro-US models of childhood and their inscription within international child and economic development policies, to return to the consequences of such critiques for theorists and practitioners of child development. Anticipating the burgeoning of educational research that now takes this forward (e.g. Moss and Petrie 2002; Dahlberg and Moss 2005; MacNaughton 2005), it is argued that this involves moving away from the prevailing isolationist research and policy focus on young children to instead analyse how diverse contexts and environments not only support or surround children’s development but also deeply inform what and how they develop.
