Early childhood education pioneers and their curriculum programs

ABSTRACT

Educational pioneers believed that the early childhood curriculum was inappropriate for most of the children. It needed to be modified to meet each child’s maturing needs, abilities, and interests. The pioneers advocated that education should be more hands-on and assist children to function successfully in society. They recommended the initiation of project learning, which would be a preparation for the children’s roles in life and creation of kindergartens. The practices in early childhood education have changed gradually. Numerous practices reemerge with novel materials that appear to indicate they are actually original. When present-day practices surface, early childhood professionals respond by generating other practices. Therefore, current practices in early childhood education appear to be associated to past early childhood educators, which are the pioneers. This article describes a few examples.

KEYWORDS:

• Child development
• curriculum
• philosophers
• culture early childhood education

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Olivia N. Saracho

Olivia N. Saracho is Professor of Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Maryland. She has conducted many studies in the area of play focusing on areas such as literacy, cognitive style and many others. She is widely published in the field of early childhood education. She is editor of the Handbook of research on the education of young children, 4th ed. (2021, Routledge) and the series on Contemporary perspectives in early childhood education (Information Age). She is the author of An integrated play-based curriculum for young children (2021, Routledge).

Roy Evans

Roy Evans is Editor in Chief of Early Child Development and Care, a position he has held since 1977. He is Visiting Professor of Early Childhood Education in the School of Education at the University of Northampton. Prior to his retirement from full time work, Roy was Professor of Education and Head of the School of Education at Brunel University, London. Since the late 1960s, he has authored numerous books in the field of early childhood and special education, published regularly in various scholarly journals, and lectured internationally on the social integration of young children and features of the environment which represent risks to children’s normal development. In 1999, the Royal Society of Arts recognized Roy for his scholarly research and publications; therefore, the Society elected him to be a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA), which is awarded to scholars in the world that the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) identifies and determines to have made important achievements to social progress and development. He is also Chief International Editor of the International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, a journal that publishes research on adolescents and youth across international contexts.