Reframing the Emotional Worlds of the Early Childhood Classroom

Samara Madrid is an Associate Professor in the Department of Elementary and Early Education at the University of Wyoming. David Fernie is Professor of Early Childhood Education and former Dean of Education at Wheelock College. Rebecca Kantor is Dean of the School of Education and Human Development at Colorado University, Denver.

• Chapter 1: Introduction to reframing emotion. Samara Madrid, David E. Fernie, and Rebecca Kantor Just Practices and Emotional DiscomfortChapter 2: A family, a fire, and a framework: Emotions in an anti-bias school community. Caryn Park, Debbie LeeKeenan, and Heidi GivenCommentary: Patricia RamseyChapter 3: Guinea pigs, Asperger’s Syndrome, and my son: When teachers struggle to recognize humanity. Steve BialostokCommentary: Margarita BiancoChapter 4: Food fight: Difficult negotiations between adults in an early childhood center. Susan TwomblyCommentary: Tamar Jacobson Place and Spaces for Emotional Intimacy and ChallengeChapter 5: Recognizing, respecting and reconsidering the emotions of conflict. Ellen Hall and Alison MaherCommentary: Mary Jane MoranChapter 6: How to hold a hummingbird: Using stories to make space for the emotional lives of children in a public school classroom. Melissa Tonachel Commentary: Laurie KatzChapter 7: The woods as a toddler classroom: The emotional experience of challenge, connection, and caring. Dee Smith and Jeanne Goldhaber Commentary: John Nimmo Understanding Emotion Within Roles and RelationshipsChapter 8: Critical friends work through the emotions of beginning teaching together. David FernieCommentary: Barbara SeidlChapter 9: Emotional intersections in early childhood leadership. Nikki BaldwinCommentary: Holly Elissa BrunoChapter 10: Promoting peer relations for young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: The LEAP preschool experience. Phillip S. Strain and Edward H. Bovey Commentary: Michelle BuchananContributorsIndex

"This book examines the emotional world of the early childhood setting and how it affects young children. Just as an environment needs to be educationally conductive to learning, even more important is a child's emotional wellbeing within that learning environment to help them access it. If they are unhappy or unwell they will not be able to make the most of the potential for learning, no matter how outstanding the learning environment." - Martine Horvath, EYE Magazine"As the early childhood education community is pressured to focus attention on the cognitive dimensions of development, it is heartening to have a book like Madrid, Fernie and Kantor's Reframing the Emotional Worlds of the Early Childhood Classroom. Its narratives provide wonderful examples of hitting that sweet spot that balances the professional, intellectual, and emotional. The authors remind us of our relational responsibilities in early childhood through narratives from the heart that are thoughtful, challenging, and human." - Beth Graue, Sorenson Professor of Early Childhood Education, University of Wisconsin, USA"This book is filled with compelling stories, celebrations, confessionals--some tough to read--about the essential place of emotions in the life of the classroom. Through their multiple frames (as parent, teacher, researcher, administrator), the authors remind us that an authentic early childhood classroom works best when it's open to the emotionally-rich experiences of our real and imagined lives. Everyone learns when emotions are elicited, respected and shared, whether fear of a fire, delight in exploring the woods, confusion over the death of guinea pigs, the courage to generate conflict or the awe-some-ness of a hummingbird rescue. This book will help you pay better attention to children, their families, your colleagues and yourself." - Rebecca Staples New, Associate Professor of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA