Still Missing? History Chapters in Introductory Early Childhood Education Textbooks From the 1990s to the 2010s

Abstract

This article compares history chapters in recent introductory early childhood education textbooks with those from an earlier study, reviewing history chapters on four dimensions: the rationale for the study of history, the dominant story of the history, the facts of the history, and the image of the history. Ten textbooks are reviewed, including six from the original study that are still in publication. Foundation textbooks are described as important sources of knowledge for beginning students. In the earlier study, the dominant story was derived mainly from the contributions of “giant thinkers” in psychology, education, and philosophy. A notable current trend is identified, that textbooks have improved their attention to international and non-Western developments. Nevertheless, while there is some evidence of a change in the presentation of history in the textbooks in the current survey, the article concludes by identifying some missing pieces, as in the original survey.

Notes

¹All of the textbooks that were reviewed in 1998 that remain in publication (six of the original 13) were examined once again for this study.

²In our examination of potential textbooks we found other publications, although not foundational in nature, that are more specific in their focus. These include texts by Follari (2011), Morgan (2011), Blaise and Nuttal (2011), and Roopnarine and Johnson (2012), who focus on early childhood history, culture, policy, and programs—adding a more comprehensive view of early childhood history.

³Child-rearing manuals were a related parent education literature. See Cahan (2006), Stearns (2003), and Hulbert (2004).

⁴Majority World is used in preference to the terms “developing countries” or “third world countries,” and is used to refer to indigenous populations in any country that are under pressure and treated as minorities (Dasen & Akkari, 2008).