Review of the first edition:
"This book should be essential reading for every student of Early Childhood. Helen Penn is a highly regarded academic who has the rare ability to write simply and lucidly about complex issues. This eagerly awaited new edition provides a lively critical overview of the field. Highly recommended."
Professor Trisha Maynard, Head of the Department of Childhood Studies, Swansea University, UK
Understanding Early Childhood provides students with a clear, user-friendly introduction to a number of difficult concepts and theories in early childhood education. Drawing on research evidence from various countries and reviewing studies about children from different disciplines - including anthropology, economics, history, psychology and sociology - it offers broad and insightful perspectives on the ways in which we understand and study young children.
Revised and updated throughout, the second edition covers contemporary theories and debates in a concise and accessible style. Unique features include:
- A critical discussion of child development
- A broad interdisciplinary approach
- A general overview of theoretical approaches and research methodologies
- New coverage of global trends about childhood.
- An important new chapter on the economics of early education and care
- Updates on the relevance of neuroscience and genetic research to early childhood
- ‘What to read next’ at the end of each chapter
- The ability to be used by varying levels of students
The book concludes with a postscript on the theme of interdisciplinary thinking and a critique of current policy initiatives in the UK.
Understanding Early Childhood is key reading for early childhood students and practitioners working with young children.
Helen Penn is Professor of Early Childhood at the University of East London. She is the Research Leader for the School of Education and Director of Studies for the early childhood PhD programme, and teaches on the MA in Early Childhood as well as supervising PhD and research students. Helen has had a varied background working as an infant teacher, as a day-care campaigner, and as the UK's first director of integrated childrens services in Strathclyde in Scotland.
Her research was initially concerned with UK policy and practice in early years and she still undertakes some local policy work, but has become especially interested in comparative policy work, mostly in the South (developing countries) especially in central Asia and Southern Africa. She is also interested in evidence based policy and practice and have led the early years review group at EPPI (evidence based policy and practice initiative) funded by DfES. She undertakes consultancies for a number of international agencies on evaluating and costing systems of early education and care, both in the North (developed world) and in the South, including Unicef and Save the Children. Most recently, Helen was a rapporteur for the OECD study on early education and care in Canada, and led a workshop for the South African Department of Education on inter-agency support for young children with HIV/AIDS.
In addition to her Open University Press title, Helen has also published "Unequal Childhoods: Young Children's Lives in Poor Countries" for Routledge, exploring the upbringing and circumstances of young children in the South, plus many chapters in books and articles in professional magazines and journals
