This essay entails a critical review of the origins, discourses and contemporary manifestations of NAEYC's enduring commitment to 'developmentally appropriate practice' (DAP); and proposes a reconceptualisation of DAP as an open question and incentive for place-based collaborative inquiry. Brief discussion of ECE's early history highlights…

The National Association for the Education of Young Children recently revised its Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP), the standard for early childhood care and education. Josh Thompson and Zlata Stankovic-Ramirez explore how DAP has evolved over time and what guidance it provides early childhood educators regarding the interaction between…

Research Findings: The National Association for the Education of Young Children's guidelines for developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) have been imported and researched by others across the globe. A central issue that has arisen for these international early childhood educators is whether these best practices are sensitive to the…

Socio-techno-cultural reality, in the current historical era, evolves at a faster rate than do human brain or human institutions. This reality creates a "complexity gap" that reduces human and institutional capacities to adapt to the challenges of late modernity. New insights from the neurosciences may help to reduce the complexity gap.…

This comparative and qualitative study-in-progress focuses on two early childhood teacher education (ECTE) programs in contexts where the participants are undergoing rapid social and personal change: a program in Namibia and a program for immigrant childcare educators in Canada. The objective is to provide in-depth understanding of the ways in…

Parenting is one of the most emotionally powerful, demanding, and consequential tasks of adulthood. Previously, the task of parenting was shared with extended family and community members. Today, with less extensive networks of experience and support, parents are frequently not as well prepared. Research has identified the elements of competent…

In this paper, we call attention to the need to expand existing efforts and to develop policies, programs, and best practices in the United States designed to support parents at risk and promote parenting competence. Despite the existence of some services offered to parents of children at risk due to developmental delay or at economic risk, the…

This article explores critical issues linked to early child development (ECD) professionalism in African childhood contexts in the light of rights-based consideration. Against the backdrop of acculturation being a reality in Africa, it accepts professionalism as a "good thing" for ECD programmes in Africa. The article sketches a portrait…

The goal of the present study is to explore the use of developmentally appropriate practices in Asian Indian early childhood classrooms. This information is critical for all early childhood educators and teacher educators because the society we live in is fast becoming extremely diverse and our classrooms are becoming a cauldron of various…

The "Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-First Century" provides a mandate for discussion of the spiritual within secular state schooling, but this discussion has never occurred. This is a serious omission given what could be called an "undercurrent of concern" for the ways in which young people…

Today, the majority of countries are characterized by multicultural diversity, a factor which has enormous implications for early childhood educators. As we begin to understand the long-term benefits of participation in high quality early childhood care and education, educators must also recognize that their own cultural heritage can and does…

The current conceptualization of what is appropriate in early childhood education is overly narrow in its interpretation of the role of the teacher, and with respect to variations in cultural and developmental diversity. Based on this observation, this book discusses various issues surrounding diversity, inclusion, and appropriate early…

This book explores how young children, within their cultural imperatives, struggle to discover who they are as cultural "members" interacting with others, as "makers" trying out and creating, and as "interpreters" making meaning and making new connections. Chapters in Part 1 emphasize the significance of a…

Many early childhood teachers report lacking confidence to teach science. Today, science education is defined as "doing science", as opposed to memorization of facts (Seefeldt & Galper, 2002). This paper discusses developmentally appropriate practices in the context of teaching science. Knowledge of child development, individual differences and…

This paper presents Developmentally and Culturally Appropriate Practice (DCAP) as an extension of Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) which combines the goals of multicultural and anti-bias education with those of early childhood education (ECE). The paper presents characteristics of multicultural pedagogical strategies, with the root of…