Transitions to new educational experiences are a universal rite of passage encountered by children worldwide. This volume in the Educating the Young Child: Advances in Theory and Research, Implications for Practice series provides early childhood educators with a resource that focuses on the transitions that young children make to early care and education settings, along with the issues that surround this important time in their lives. New experiences, such as the start of formal schooling, mark important and exciting events that also evoke different reactions from children and their families. The diverse experiences, traits, and needs exhibited by young children provide early childhood educators with what may be a potentially challenging role. With an international focus, the purpose of Transitions to Early Care and Education: International Perspectives on Making Schools Ready for Young Children is to communicate an enlarged view of the transition process in order to appreciate and honor the promise and potential of all children worldwide. Contributing to this volume are a group of distinguished researchers, practitioners, and educators in the field of early childhood education. Their collective expertise is shared with those who are committed to educating and caring for young children and the families they serve.

Zusammenfassung

This proposed book will be part of the new international series Educating the Young Child. It will focus on transitions that young children make to early care and education settings, along with the issues that surround this very important time in their lives. The theme is timely and important because children transitions are a universal rite of passage encountered by children worldwide. The diverse experiences, traits, and needs exhibited by young children provide early childhood educators with what may be a potentially challenging role. New experiences, such as the start of formal schooling, mark important and exciting events that also evoke different reactions from both parents and children.

With an international focus, the purpose of this book is to communicate an enlarged view of the currently constraining deficit-based American focus on readiness for the transition to formal school. By broadening this narrow view, the book will appreciate and honor the promise and potential of all children worldwide. The insights shared in this book have the potential to inform both practice and policy.

The book will provide a plethora of practices and strategies for promoting successful transitions for children in a variety of social and cultural contexts. As a resource for teacher education programs, along with in-service early childhood professionals, and university faculty, the book will also provide a theoretical and research background. This edited book will showcase the views of a variety of authors who have demonstrated experience in topics related to transitions in early childhood education. One of these noted authors is Nancy Balaban, who has published two significant works in this area.

As a former kindergarten teacher, I view the book as a resource that will assist educators to promote successful transitions for the students they serve. It has been my experience that student teachers who are placed in early childhood classrooms in the fall semester have an "edge" over those who student teach in the spring semester, due to the many practices that they observe as the transition process unfolds. For those who do not have the opportunity to prepare for teaching in this way, the book will help fill the gap between theory and practice and be a resource for teachers as they support their students' transitions to new educational experiences.

To prepare an effectively organized book, a review of literature was conducted on the topic of transition to formal school. As the co-editor, I have also written on this subject and have researched international practices for promoting successful transitions. Authors who have previously published books and articles on this topic were researched and a tentative table of contents was developed based on previous work that was done in this area. The goal for the proposed book is to provide early childhood educators with a resource that is a compilation of research-based strategies and pertinent information that addresses issues related to the transition to formal school experiences, according to noted researchers who have already published in this area. Their expertise will be compiled into this book and address issues that include attachment and separation; meeting the needs of children with exceptionalities; children living in poverty; family relationships; and strategies for promoting successful transitions.

The targeted market for this book will benefit from the information contained in the book because of the universality of the transitions that children experience, yet the diverse needs that exist. When educators are familiar with current, research-based practices for addressing children's transition needs, their students and their families will ultimately benefit. It is essential that early childhood educators are aware of the practices that exist that can help with this very important milestone in their students' lives.

Inhalt

Foreword; Mary Renck Jalongo.- Introduction; DeAnna M. Laverick.- Part One - Programs and Practices.- 1. Transitions to Group Care for Infants, Toddlers and Families; Nancy Balaban.- 2. Examining the State of the Science: Empirical Support for Kindergarten Transition Practices for Students with Disabilities; Laura Lee McIntyre and Leah K. Wildenger.- 3. Supporting and Sustaining Transition to Formal Schooling for Children on the Autism Spectrum; Joann M. Migyanka.- 4. Early Literacy: Connections and Disconnections Between Oral Language and Literacy; Susan Hill.- 5. Teacher Outreach to Families Across the Transition to School: An Examination of Teachers' Practices and their Unique Contributions to Children's Early Academic Outcomes; Annemarie H. Hindman, Lori E. Skibbe, and Frederick J. Morrison.- Part Two -Policies and Issues.- 6. Critical Perspectives on Transition to School: Reframing the Debate; Anne Petriwskyj and Susan Grieshaber.- 7. Transition in the Classroom: The Teacher; Margaret King.- 8. Preparing Preschoolers for Kindergarten: A Look at Teacher Beliefs; Sandraluz Lara-Cinisomo, Allison Sidle Fuligni, and Lynn A. Karoly.- 9. The School Readiness of Preschoolers from Urban Backgrounds; Regena F. Nelson.- 10. Culture, Health, and School Readiness: An Integrated Approach to Transition; Suzanne M. Winter.- Part Three - International Perspectives.- 11. Reconsidering Readiness: Should the Spotlight be on Children or on Schools?; Nancy K. Freeman and Beth Powers-Costello.- 12. Preparing Young Children for Schools in China: Critical Transitions for Chinese Children; Yaoying Xu.- 13. The Socio-Cultural Contexts of Early Education in Caribbean Societies: A Focus on Transition to Primary School; Jaipaul Roopnarine and James E. Johnson.-14. Transition to School: Child, Family, and Community-Level Determinants; Magdalena Janus.- 15. Schools as Integrated Hubs for Young Children and Families; Tomoko Arimura, Carl Corter, Janette Pelletier, Zeenat Janmohamed, Sejal Patel, Palmina Ioannone and Saba Mir.- Index.