This article reflects on observations as a dance pedagogue, adapting Gilbert's BrainDance to a range of learning and teaching opportunities in intergenerational classroom contexts. Initially applied in an early childhood education context, BrainDance provided a point of departure into conversations and observations with teachers on how the…

Play Africa, with over 40 innovative exhibits and/or programs since inception, was created as a means to address the inequalities and lack of high-quality experiences that affect the early development of children from birth to age 10 in South Africa. The results from the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) paint a dire…

Traditional games are commonly understood for their long establishment, passed down over generations and characterised by the simplicity of their materials. The aim of this article is to explore traditional games where materials are at the centre, focusing on games with stones. Through a new-materialist perspective, using Barad's concept of…

Sozo Kurahashi's (1882-1955) theories, formed from his profound respect for children, have influenced Japanese early childhood education and care (ECEC) practitioners for a long time. They also have influenced the national ECEC curriculum in Japan, which emphasizes the need for a rich environment where children can actively learn and play rather…

Integral to the global nature play movement, nature play programs have flourished over the last decade, both in Australia and internationally. Internationally, there are two prominent schools of thought in this movement, Danish Nature Kindergartens, and British Forest Schools. The underpinning philosophy of Danish Nature Kindergarten programs has…

In this article, the author introduces a series of socially engaged practices conducted between April 2019 and August 2020. In this project, titled "Project Superhero," children made meaning and projected their wishes through pretend play as superheroes. Their superhero gadgets were semiotic resources helping to reveal the children's…

Recent proliferation of participatory performance forms has prompted debate on the agency of participants. Consideration of agential potential must go beyond the enactment of the work, however, to assess how participatory experiences can be self-documented and how such records may inform artistic pedagogy. Through discussion of a creative learning…

The growing interest in outdoor early childhood education, even in countries with a weak environmental tradition such as Portugal, tends to be associated with a concern over the alienation between urban/Western children and nature. While educational projects in nature criticize this separation, they still maintain a bad culture vs good nature…

To make it through the Indian school system, children need to be resilient and feel at ease in learning--qualities that children from poorer backgrounds often lack. As a result, one in four children does not complete primary school. One way to address this issue is by preparing children for school through early childhood education, which can have…

Early foreign language teaching has recently been made compulsory in Finland, making this an area open to development and innovation where policy-makers and teachers play a significant role in creating new kinds of learning environments, operating cultures, and pedagogy for foreign language learning. This article discusses the early foreign…

Dialogic educators have designed strategies to facilitate dialogic teaching, such as establishing ground rules, employing talk moves, and structuring discussions. Though productive, such strategies rarely open dialogic space, in which shared meaning is created through an interaction that blurs the boundaries between participating voices. Dialogic…

As part of a large study aiming to understand how kindergarten children in Colombia used translanguaging during independent play, Paula (the teacher) along with Dr. Moses (lead researcher) co-designed a 6-week play-based intervention that included a variety of learning experiences such as partner reading, small-group reading, and supported play,…

This article illustrates the potential of using children's play and interest in constructive materials like LEGO bricks to support early literacy, particularly in improving the use of descriptive language. The article describes an action plan using storytelling and constructive LEGO play to improve the children's use of descriptive language and…

House of Imagination works with educators, artists and creative professionals to develop a creative approach to learning and researching experimental sites for pedagogical innovation. In our partnership work, our creative methodology, with everyone an artist, drives the ambition for artistic excellence. House of Imagination's signature project…

This article discusses the work of Susan Isaacs (1885-1948), the IOE's (Institute of Education), first director of the Department of Child Development. In addition to introducing child psychoanalysis to the UK, Isaacs was instrumental in mapping out the basis for a conceptual understanding of the role of aspects of imagination (which she termed…