This book conceptualizes the 'lived spaces' of infant and toddler early education and care settings by bringing together international authors researching within diverse theoretical frameworks. It highlights diverse ways of understanding the experiences of very young children by exposing the ways that the authors are grappling with the unknown. The work explores broadly the construct and meanings of 'lived spaces' as relational spaces, interactional spaces, transitional spaces, curriculum spaces, or pedagogical spaces operating within the social, physical and temporal environment of infant-toddler education settings. The book invites interchange between and among diverse theories and approaches, and through this build new understandings of infants' and toddlers' experiences and interactions in early education and care settings. It also considers the implications of this work for policy and practice in infant and toddler education and care. 'The strength of this manuscript is the international gathering of studies on infants and toddlers in ECEC, where the children are considered active participants and agents in their own lives.' Camilla Björklund, Department of Education, Communication and Learning, University of Gothenburg, Sweden 'The strongest aspect of the work is the confidence shown in each chapter. The book is a celebration of expertise from a variety of perspectives. It would be required reading for anyone with a special interest in young children.' Jane Bone, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Frankston, Victoria, Australia

Inhalt

Foreword.- Prologue: Campus-Toddlers: Observations and Reflections from a "Window Ethnographer".- 1. Introduction: Exploring Lived Spaces of Infant-Toddler Education and Care.- 2. Lived Spaces in a Toddler Group: Application of Lefebvre's Spatial Triad.- 3. Making This My Space: Infants' and Toddlers' Use of Resources to Make a Day Care Setting Their Own.- 4. Babies in Space.- 5. Spending Time with Others: a Time-Use Diary for Infant-Toddler Child Care.- 6. The Birthday Cake: Social Relations and Professional Practices around Mealtimes with Toddlers in Child Care.- 7. Play spaces: Educators, Parents and Toddlers.- 8. Facilitating Intimate and Thoughtful Attention to Infants and Toddlers in Nursery.- 9. Developing 'Professional Love' in Early Childhood Settings.- 10. Observing Infants' and Toddlers' Relationships and Interactions in Group Care.- 11. Guided Participation and Communication Practices in Multilingual Toddler Groups.- 12. Infant Signs Reveal Infant Minds to Early Childhood Professionals.- 13. What Infants Talk About: Comparing Parents' and Educators' Insights.- 14. Expressing, Interpreting and Exchanging Perspectives during Infant-Toddler Social Interactions: The Significance of Acting with Others in Mind.- 15. Infants Initiating Encounters with Peers in Group Care Environments.- 16. A Dialogic Space in Early Childhood Education: Chronotopic Encounters with People, Places and Things.- 17. Lived Spaces of Infant-Toddler Education and Care: Implications for Policy?.- Appendix.