Early Childhood Curriculum

Claire McLachlan is Professor of Education and Head of School, Te Hononga School of Curriculum and Pedagogy, Faculty of Education, University of Waikato, New Zealand. She has lectured on early childhood education at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, at Auckland University of Technology, Massey University, Auckland, and the University of Waikato, Hamilton and Tauranga, as well as having had various roles as a teacher and manager in early childhood centres. Claire has a longstanding interest in curriculum, particularly early literacy and physical education, and over a 200 publications on various aspects of curriculum, assessment, and planning, including nine books. Claire is a member of the UNESCO-IBE Early Reading Panel and the New Zealand Ministry of Education Early Childhood Research Policy Forum and Teacher Lead Innovation Panel. Claire was also a member of the writing team for the update of Te Wh¿riki (2017).

Provides a comprehensive introduction to curriculum theories and approaches in early childhood and early primary settings.

1. Introduction; 2. Theory, research and the early childhood curriculum; 3. Play, learning and development: how views of development shape how curriculum is framed; 4. Curriculum as cultural broker; 5. Interpreting early childhood curriculum; 6. Cultural-historical curriculum in action; 7. Curriculum as a conceptual tool: observation, content and programming; 8. Assessing children and evaluating curriculum: shifting lenses; 9. Content knowledge: science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM); 10. Content knowledge: language and literacies; 11. Content knowledge: the arts and health, wellbeing and physical activity; 12. Conclusions.