ABSTRACT

Understanding the place of religion in Early Childhood Education and Care is of critical importance for the development of cultural literacy and plays a key role in societal coherence and inclusion. This International Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the place of religion in the societal educational arenas of the very youngest children across the globe. Drawing together contributions from leading international experts across disciplinary backgrounds, it offers a critical view over how to approach the complexities around the place of religion in Early Childhood Education and Care.

Through its four sections, the book examines the theoretical, methodological, policy and practice perspectives and explores the complex intersections of transmission of ‘cultural heritage’ and ‘national values’ with the diverse, changing societal contexts. Each chapter contributes into an increased understanding of how the place of religion in Early Childhood Education and Care can be understood across continents, countries, and educational systems.

The Routledge International Handbook for the Place of Religion in Early Childhood Education and Care is an essential resource for academics, researchers, students and practitioners working in Early Childhood Education, Sociology of Childhood, Religious Education, and other related fields

1. The Place of Religion in Early Childhood Education and Care.  Part I: THEORY.  2. The Re-Imagined Other: Postcolonial Perspectives on the Place of Religion in Early Childhood Education.  3 The interaction of religion and culture as a basis for religious education in early childhood education. An integrative/integral approach.  4. Subjectification as an Educational Goal in Religious and Worldview Education in Early Childhood Education and Care.  5. Migrating Meanings and Pedagogical Profanation: An Educational Approach to Rituals and Traditions in Pre/Schools.  6.  Ideal Caring Bodies: On the Intersections Between Religion and Gender in ECEC.  7. Children’s right to religion and religious education: Access to religious education in early childhood as a human right.  8. Human rights education and teaching of religion in early childhood education in Denmark.  9 Religious Education as a Societal Resource in Immigrant Societies: ‘Contact Zones’ and ‘Safe Spaces’ in Early Childhood Education.  10 Professional and personal values in the role as religious educators in kindergartens in Norway.  11. The Evolved Developmental Niche and the Neurobiology of Spiritual Development.  12. Is The Sand Alive?: Posthuman Experimentation with/in South African Early Years Teacher Education.  Part II: METHOD.  13. Childhood research on (religious) diversity: methodological issues.  14. Religion and Worldviews in Early Childhood Education and Care: Eight Parameters for Ethical Research.  15. The place of religious and non-religious values and beliefs in identities of mothers of young children: Methodological approach and empirical evidence from the European comparative perspective.  16. Studying the Place of Religion in Early Childhood Education in German Kindergartens with different Methods and Approaches.  17. Religious Research in the ECEC Setting in Australia: Empirical and Methodological Gaps.  18. Conversation Analysis in research on children’s ethical and moral decision making in ECEC  Part III: POLICY.  19  The Transformation of Child-centered Religious Education in Prewar Japan.  20. Negotiating children’s gender and religiosity: Stories from Indonesian Early Childhood Education.  21. A Journey into the Child’s Personal Religion- Spiritually nurturing practices in ECEC,with a focus on the New Zealand national curriculum.  22. The Place of Religion in Hungarian ECEC.  23. An Early Childhood Worldview Education Transformations within the Competency-based Curriculum in Latvia.  24 In search of religion in Norwegian ECEC policy documents and practice.  25. Learning in non-denominational post-secular teaching on religions for young children: challenges and possibilities.  26. Understandings of culture and religion: Re-negotiating troublesome concepts in Swedish ECEC policy.  27 Ambiguity, Silence and Misalignment: The Place of Religion in Australia’s Early Childhood Education Curricula Documents.  28. Developing children's life orientation in ECEC: curriculum development research project in the Pillarised Dutch Society.  29. Place of religion and the Cuban ECEC.  Part IV: PRACTICE.  30 On God, Gods and Idols: How to talk about sieidi in Sámi ECEC teacher education.  31 The place of religion in Early Childhood Education and Care in India.  32. Early Childhood Education in Islam using the example of Turkey and Egypt.  33. Responding to the Spiritual Dimension of Young Children in Kindergarten Through Positive Silence.  34. The Nurturing Triangle: Home, school and church in Early Childhood Education – Reflections on the experience in England and Wales.  35. Spiritual and Religious Capabilities: A possibility for addressing the needs of Early Childhood Catholic Religious Educators.  36 Religious traditions in the secularist Swedish preschool – problems, challenges, and possibilities.  37. When worldview issues are at stake in kindergartens: How could virtue ethics enhance student-teachers’ and teachers’ courage to deal with cases concerning religion and other worldviews in kindergarten?  38  Religion and religiosity as sensitive issues in Swedish preschools  39. Education and ethnic-religious conflicts in the V Altos Tsotsil-Tseltal intercultural region of Chiapas, Mexico.  40. Religious plurality in Austrian Early Childhood Education: Children’s establishments as places for empowerment beyond binary coding.  41. Open Conclusion