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This text rearticulates understandings of materials—blocks of clay, sheets of paper, brushes and paints, fabrics, and plastics—to formulate new ideas about what happens when we think with materials and apply them to early childhood development and classrooms.Through a series of ethnographic examples and engagement with existing ideas of relationality in the visual arts, feminist ethics, science studies, philosophy, anthropology, and environmental humanities, Encounters with Materials in Early Childhood Education highlights how materials can be conceptualized as active participants in early childhood education. Updated to include choreographies with fabrics and the process of reparation with plastics, this second edition shows how educators, young children, and researchers have explored what materials are capable of in their encounters with other materials and with children.The book is key reading for undergraduate students, graduate students, and pre-service teachers in early childhood education and art education programs. Access the Instructor and Student Resources at www.encounterswithmaterials.com.

Encounters with Materials in Early Childhood Education rearticulates understandings of materials—blocks of clay, sheets of paper, brushes and paints—to formulate what happens when we think with materials and apply them to early childhood development and classrooms. The book develops ways of thinking about materials that are more sustainable and insightful than what most children in the Western world experience today through capitalist narratives. Through a series of ethnographic events and engagement with existing ideas of relationality in the visual arts, feminist ethics, science studies, philosophy, and anthropology, Encounters with Materials in Early Childhood Education highlights how materials can be conceptualized as active participants in early childhood education and generators of human insight. A variety of examples show how educators, young children, and researchers have engaged in thinking with materials in early years classrooms and explore what materials are capable of in their encounters with other materials and with children.Please visit the companion website at www.encounterswithmaterials.com for additional features, including interviews with the authors and the teachers featured in the book, videos and photographs of the classroom narratives described in these pages, and an ongoing blog of the authors'ethnographic notes.

Drawing as Language: Celebrating the Work of Bob Steele is a Festschrift in honour of Bob Steele, Professor Emeritus, artist, educator and tireless advocate for bringing authentic aesthetic lived experiences to young children. Bob Steele's prolific contribution to the field of visual arts education recognizes the importance of drawing for everyone, but especially with young children. As an artist-teacher-researcher Bob has devoted decades to developing understandings of drawing as language. He is a progressive thinker with commitment and passion, and through a lifetime of work has provoked serious engagement with children's drawing processes: how children learn through drawing, through authentic experiences with their sensory world, and through their intense engagement with stories. In this unique collection we have invited educators and scholars whose work represents the ongoing influence of the ideas and teachings of Bob Steele: what he has brought to the field of art education, early childhood studies, and curriculum studies in general. It traces the history and development of his ideas. The reader is taken through his journey as a young educator in rural Saskatchewan, Canada to significant moments in his teaching and his work. The voices of the contributors offer an insightful alternative into how drawing need not be limited to a particular discipline but can be language of communication; a language that significantly matters in the daily lives and learning not just only for children, but for those who also work with them. We hope this Festschrift inspires you to think about the drawings of children differently and take your understanding to a new level.