Early Childhood Educator

Rachel Langford is Professor Emeritus in the School of Early Childhood Studies at Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada. She is the author of Theorizing Feminist Ethics of Care in Early Childhood Practice (Bloomsbury, 2019). Brooke Richardson is Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Sociology at Brock University, Canada. She has published internationally on topics related gender and childcare policy, child protection and the broader care economy.

• Introduction Brooke Richardson (Brock University, Canada) and Rachel Langford (Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada)1. Reflections on Poststructural Feminisms: Supporting Multiple Performances of Teacher Identities Kylie Smith (University of Melbourne, Australia)2. Kristevan Early Childhood Teacher Poststructural Feminist Identities in Australia and New Zealand Sonja Arndt and Marek Tesar (University of Auckland, New Zealand)3. Laboring Relations and the Early Childhood Educator: The Return to Materialism Jan Newberry (University of Lethbridge, Canada)4. Reclaiming Early Childhood Educator(s) as Early Childhood Educator(s) through Feminist Ethics of Care Melinda Bruce (Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada) and Alana Powell (Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario, Canada)Commentary 1 Rachel Langford (Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada) and Brooke Richardson (Brock University, Canada)5. Waves upon waves: Highlighting the Invisibility of the Early Childhood Workforce through Conversations with Fourth Wave, Black, and Postcolonial Feminisms Flora Harmon (Texas A&M University, USA), Erica Ritter (Texas A&M University, USA) and Radhika Viruru (Texas A&M University, USA)6. Womanist Praxis in Early Childhood Education and Care: Educators’ Nourishment of Mind-Body-Spirit Relations Nnenna Odim (The University of Texas at Austin, USA), Kia S. Rideaux (School District, North Texas, USA), and Michelle Salazar Pérez (The University of Texas at Austin, USA)7. Decolonizing Feminisms: Provocations for Early Childhood Educators in Aotearoa | New Zealand Jenny RitchieCommentary 2 Brooke Richardson (Brock University, Canada) and Rachel Langford (Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada)8. Queer bodies in Early Childhood: Gender Disruption(s) & Impure feminisms to “Get us Free” Janice Kroeger (Kent State University, USA)9. Posthuman Possibilities for the Early Childhood Educator Meagan Montpetit (Western University, Canada)10. Early Childhood Pedagogues, Thresholds, Feminisms and New Materialism Gunilla Dahlberg (Stockholm University, Sweden) and Ann Merete Otterstad (Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway)11. Femme-inist Approaches to Early Childhood Education & Care: Cultivating Pedagogies of Care via Femme Theory Adam W.J. Davies (University of Guelph, Canada) and Rhea Ashley Hoskin (University of Waterloo, Canada)Commentary 3 Rachel Langford (Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada) and Brooke Richardson (Brock University, Canada)Concluding Remarks Rachel Langford (Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada) and Brooke Richardson (Brock University, Canada)Index

In current times of whirlwind changes in early childhood education, this book provides an excellent reason to pause and think: “Who is the early childhood educator?” As the text makes visible, responding ethically to this profoundly political question requires putting an array of feminist responses into an enthralling conversation.