Using philosophy to (re)value, (re)conceptualise and (re)vitalise ECE theory and practice

Abstract

Pressures on early childhood education provision are immense. In Indonesia, as internationally, there is both a sense of crisis and of hope! Teachers and providers struggle, under pressure to perform, to achieve global ‘quality’ benchmarks, and meet universal standards of practice. Neoliberal policy and mindsets complicate already challenging prospects of professionalization, regulation, international aid, and conflicting theorisations of ‘best’ practice. This talk finds hope in challenging dominant theorisations. It challenges inequities arising for children in ECE, by reconceptualizing not the theories, but our thought. Grounded in the Kristevan notion that thought itself, perhaps, is a fo..