Teaching as Inquiry: Rethinking Curriculum in Early Childhood Education with a Foreword by Jeanne Goldhaber
Refreshing in tone and visionary in intent,Teaching as Inquiryoffers an alternative approach for young teachers to observe and assess child development.The authors purposefully rethink previous assumptions, emphasizing a willingness to fail and to “come to the edge” as practice for teaching in a way that inspires lifelong questioning and discovery. Grounded throughout with abundant and diverse real-world examples and drawing on the author team's extensive experience, this new text demonstrates that its models can and do result in creative, engaged teachers and meaningful, effective curricula.“The authors' voices are caring yet challenging; humble yet clear; questioning yet informed. With every page, they invite the reader to join them in a continuous cycle of self-reflection and inquiry. It is as much a text as it is a very personal journal that documents the development of a remarkable learning community.”—Jeanne Goldhaber, University of Vermont“This textbook will be a useful tool for guided self-reflection by future teachers, in whom we all invest high hopes.”—Lella Gandini, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and U.S. Liaison for the Dissemination of the Reggio Emilia Approach“Teaching as Inquiry's most powerful method is the use of the voice of college student teachers during their preparation process. These passages from their own writing capture the process that the book wants us to engage in, and through them complex concepts come alive and become real.”—Carol Brunson Day, President of the Council for Professional Recognition“This book is the first comprehensive early childhood education text provoked and inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach....The authors are part of a movement toward a more public and professional view of teaching, and they portray a humanistic approach to documentation and teacher research that is intended to contradict the push for testing and measuring child outcomes dominant in much of education today.”—Carolyn Pope Edwards, University of Nebraska-Lincoln