Abstract/Notes: Discusses the important influence of nursery school design on the learning experiences of preschool children, focusing on the design of the "Haus Der Kinder," an all-day Montessori preschool that operated in Vienna in the 1930s. Notes the importance of a homelike atmosphere and a variety of room layouts and furniture. (MDM)

Language: English

ISSN: 1522-9734

Abstract/Notes: Lili Peller's "The Children's House" essay begins where Maria Montessori left off in her description of space articulations. Peller does not name Montessori specifically as she always had a desire to become independent in her own right as a neo-Freudian child analyst. But the Haus Der Kinder founded in summer of 1922 suggests a total Montessori influence as it calls for "adventures in space" with house-like rooms for different functions, both for play and for work, for practical functions: library, kitchen, workshop, quiet room, alcoves, nooks, and terraces for special individual work, with all spaces focusing on the relationships between indoor and outdoor environments. [This article was reprinted from "The NAMTA Quarterly" 3,1 (1978 Spring): 47-55.]

Language: English

ISSN: 1522-9734

Language: English

ISSN: 1071-6246

Language: English

ISSN: 0571-1142

Language: English

Abstract/Notes: There is now a broad international consensus that investing in early childhood education and care represents the highest “return on investment” in terms of economic and social development. The pursuit of the dual objective of efficiency and equity has resulted in a reorientation of preschool curricula towards preparation for compulsory schooling, emphasizing the acquisition of the “fundamentals” (reading, writing, and arithmetic) most useful for future academic success. The chapter offers first a comparative analysis of how this “schooling process” unfolded in French and Belgian nursery schools and in the Danish kindergarten. It attests to the persistence of specific cultural and political traditions relating to both the respective roles of the state and families in early childhood education, as well as of conceptions of childhood and relations between adults and children. Second, based on field research conducted in French-speaking Belgium, it discusses the idea that the search for children's well-being and performance at the same time creates tensions in the exercise of the teaching profession. It then shows that it is possible to understand the success of the discourse of cognitive neuroscience and so-called alternative pedagogical methods, including Montessori, because these discourses seem to propose a way to overcome these tensions.

Language: English

Published: New York, New York: Routledge, 2024

ISBN: 978-1-00-337720-7