Interrupting stereotypes : teaching and the education of young children

Abstract

Despite calls to the contrary, research about teaching has tended to take a back seat to research about children's development and learning in early childhood education. After exploring why this might be the case, this essay considers the importance of teaching for early childhood education and the contexts in which it occurs in these early years of the twenty-first century. It presents a view from the Antipodes (Australia), a down-under perspective from the southern hemisphere where early childhood education and research associated with it have been influenced to a large extent by what happens in the northern hemisphere. The paper encourages the active interruption of stereotypical performances of early childhood practitioners and children by suggesting practitioners push the boundaries of their theoretical and practical knowledge by making way for contradictions and inconsistencies that accompany all forms of diversity and difference, taking risks, and disrupting the status quo.