Qualitative Studies of Exploration in Childhood Education: Cultures of Play and Learning in Transition

Review “This book enriches the study of child development from a cultural-historical perspective, exploring empirical studies in very diverse cultural settings, which makes it highly attractive to researchers.” ―José A. Sánchez Medina, Professor of Communication Psychology, University Pablo de Olavide, Spain Product Description This book uses the concept of exploration as a way of understanding transitions in children between the ages of 5 to 18 years old. Written by an international group of scholars from Australia, Brazil, China, Denmark, Finland, Greenland, India, Norway and the UK, the chapters offer a diverse set of case studies. The topics and themes covered include transitions in outdoor playtime, the transition to daycare, compassion in kindergarten, learning with fathers, transitions of Chinese traditional culture and disability. The chapters are organised into two parts, the first part covering macro transitions and the second covering micro-genetic transitions. The contributors show how both macro and micro-genetic transitions influence children's everyday lives, and how these different transitions open up new possibilities for play, learning and development. The contributors draw on Vygotsky's cultural historical theory and the understanding that children's cultural formation takes form in a dialectic relation between children's interests and motives and the institutional settings they participate in. About the Author Marilyn Fleer is Professor and Foundation Chair of Early Childhood Education and Development at Monash University, Australia.Mariane Hedegaard is Professor Emerita of Developmental Psychology at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.Elin Eriksen Ødegaard is Professor and Director of the Kindergarten Knowledge Centre for Systemic Research on Diversity and Sustainable Futures at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway, and Visiting Professor at the University of Tromso, Norway.Megan Adams is Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Monash University, Australia.Hanne Værum Sørensen is Associate Professor of Pedagogy and Education at VIA University College, Aarhus, Denmark.