Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Policy in Early Childhood Initial Teacher Education

This book critically examines pedagogy and curriculum design in early childhood initial teacher education programmes, focusing on developing pre-service teachers' pedagogical content knowledge in science, numeracy, and literacy, as well as classroom readiness and confidence in diverse cultural settings. Bringing together international contributions from across Turkey, Ireland, South Africa, the USA, the UK, Norway, New Zealand, China, Bangladesh, Greece, and Fiji, the book features case studies and empirical research on curriculum design, pedagogical approaches, and curricula policy reform within early childhood initial teacher education. Chapters present a broad range of themes, from AI integration to indigenous curricula, inclusive education to innovative technologies, as well as contemporary theoretical frameworks. In providing a discussion and comparison of early childhood initial teacher education policies against global sustainability goals, this volume offers a timely and necessary direction for future research in the area, directly aligned with the SDGs while exploring global early childhood policies and pre-service teacher experiences. Presenting the first book-length publication to systematically address support for initial early childhood teachers in diverse cultural contexts, this volume will be useful to scholars, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of early childhood education, education policy, initial teacher education and curriculum studies more broadly.