Compiled by: Aaron Bradbury and Ruth Swailes

Introduction
“Early Childhood pioneers and theorists are the backbone of our practices in working with children 0-8 years and families. We continually hear about how we need to link theory to practice as it allows us to continue to put the child at the centre of what we do. The Early Childhood Pioneers and theorists are undoubtedly influencing our thinking when it comes to child development and our practices.

This book engages the reader, that’s you by the way, in what is deemed to be thought- provoking practices when it comes to Early Childhood theories of today. Yes, of course we have some of the names we have come to love and respect, the greats, the ones we were all taught when we did our training, but this book also highlights some of what we class as modern-day theorists or pioneers. It is of course these professionals that are supporting the landscape, our thinking and critical eyes when it comes to us being with children and families. We both think that you will enjoy the full range of theorists and pioneers and given then a contemporary twist. We have chosen these theorists and pioneers as not only do we feel that these have made huge gains in the sector, but we also still believe that they are influencing our practices today and hope that they will influence yours into the future too.”

Aim of this book
“The main aim of this book is to support your journey as an Early Childhood professional, practitioner, or student doing training in the field of Early Years, Early Primary Education, Early Childhood and Community role. It is a text which will be able to support you to demonstrate how to apply your knowledge and understanding to Early Childhood in a holistic way. The book will also go a long way to supporting you with being able to apply theory to practice. Working across a range of Early Childhood practices we know how daunting or confusing it can be with the wide range of theorists and pioneers out there and which is the best one for approaching certain aspects of your practice. I think we can safely say that no matter which theorist you use from this text, whether that is a modern day one or one from the past, we have chosen them for their child centred approach to Early Childhood practices, so meets many aspects of being an Early Childhood professional today and what is needed to be a 21st century professional. This book has been written at a time when children’s learning is being impacted in many ways due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. However, we are clear that children need us to be able to see the world through their eyes, and by giving you our 10 Early Childhood theorists and Pioneers, we hope, in some way help us to support and guide each child to be able to fulfil their childhood and develop into joyous, unique and well supported individuals.”

About this book
“The book is divided into 10 chapters, with the importance of love, child centred, pedagogical approaches in children’s learning and everyday lives. The book allows you to be able to see those common threads running throughout the text. The book is also unique, as we felt that professionals in Early Childhood needed to be able to see how modern-day pioneers of Early Childhood are helping shape our landscape of practice.

Each book chapter focuses on either a modern-day theorist or pioneer, or one of the greats we have come to learn and love. The book has been written by several expert voices, depicting their ideas of how these theorists and pioneers link to Early Childhood practices. Each chapter gives you a detailed account of who the theorists and pioneers are and supports you with critical thinking, reflection, and connection to your everyday practices. We wanted to share the expert author voices these voices, making sure that the book was a representation of the workforce, and this developed into the edited book you are now reading. We are very excited about this text, and we hope you enjoy reading it.”

Aaron Bradbury and Ruth Swailes

The Authors