Child Development in Educational Settings provides a comprehensive introduction to traditional and contemporary theories of development and learning in the contexts of early childhood and primary education. Drawing upon the experiences and perspectives of children, families, educators and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander scholars, Marilyn…

Around the world, if and how young children learn through their play in early childhood education and care contexts has been the subject of much debate. Yet rarely has the debate heard from the young children themselves, often due to the pervasive belief that they do not understand learning. To redress this, a qualitative case study was conducted…

As schools become living sites of evidence-based practice, teachers increasingly accumulate large quantities of observations and records. In these times of an overabundance of documentation, there is a need to find the "unit of analysis" that determines the essence of what matters for assessment. In drawing upon cultural-historical…

"Culturally-Sensitive Schooling" as proposed by Brayboy and Castagno offers an important way of thinking about the relations between formal and informal science learning and between Western and Indigenous science. The constructiveness framework adopted by Brayboy and Castagno in their discussions is consistent with the theoretical approach…

Examines paradigm shifts in the conceptualization of representational play, and implications for children's learning. Argues that children's play is culturally defined, valued, and interpreted and therefore, theories of play should be culturally specific. Advocates ethnographic research to avoid deficit models for non-Western children, and more…

Discusses the traditional practices and the theories that have been adopted by many early childhood professionals in Australia. Questions the implicit codes of Western schooling, highlighting the ethnocentric framework of early childhood education in many countries. Presents and discusses findings from a study of Australian indigenous families…