Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education And Care Languages of Evaluation

Summary: Since the first edition was published in 1999, Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care has established itself as one of the most important books in the early childhood field to have appeared in the last 10 years. Working with a range of critical perspectives and theories and an analysis of the world we live in today, and using examples from Canada, Sweden and Reggio Emilia, the book challenges many of th...e basic assumptions and assertions of mainstream early childhood policy and practice, showing that there are other possibilities '¬" and therefore choices to be made. In particular the book challenges a strong tendency in the early childhood field, indeed throughout public services, to reduce philosophical issues of value and meaning to purely technical and managerial issues: the process whereby judgements of value become statements of fact.This new edition of Beyond Quality includes a foreword by one of the leading figures in the early childhood field, Carlina Rinaldi from Reggio Emilia. New material also includes the three authors considering how the book remains as relevant today as when it was first written and the challenges the book poses to mainstream early childhood theory, practice and research '¬" why, in short, there remains an urgent need to get beyond quality and reconceptualise not only early childhood education and care, but also evaluation.Gunilla Dahlberg is Professor at the Institute of Education, Stockholm, Sweden.Peter Moss is Professor at the Institute of Education, University of London, UK.Alan Pence is Professor at the School of Child and Youth Care, University of Victoria, Canada. [read more]