A History of Early Childhood Education in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand

By Larry Prochner

UBC Press

In the early nineteenth century, governments began to develop specialized educational programs – kindergartens and infant or nursery schools – to give children a head start in life. These programs hinged on new visions of childhood that originated in England and Europe, but what happened when they were transported to the colonies?

This book unwinds the tangled threads of this history by drawing on a wide range of sources to trace how ideas and developments such as Rousseau’s "noble savage," Froebel’s emphasis on activity and play, and the Industrial Revolution translated into early infant schools in England, kindergartens in Germany and the United States, and the emergence of free kindergarten systems in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It reveals how these three similar but distinct colonies developed early education systems that maintained the integrity of the ideas that inspired them but adapted them to suit local ideas, politics, and indigenous and immigrant populations.

This unique account of early childhood education in comparative perspective shows how discourses and developments in the past have shaped the way we educate our children in the present. It will appeal to teachers, researchers, historians, and policy-makers who seek fresh insight into how to reconcile educational theory and practice in an increasingly global world.

RELATED TOPICS: Education, Educational Policy & Theory, Family & Childhood Studies, History, History of Education, Social Work, Sociology

Early childhood education, care and development (ECD) is increasingly on national and international agendas, and Dr. Prochner's book is an extremely valuable contribution to those discussions. ECD's history, as presented by Dr. Prochner, is rich and diverse with manifestations that not only inform us about the past, but our present as well. This is an important contribution not only for ECD, but for those interested in social development more broadly. Alan R. Pence, UNESCO Chair in Early Childhood Education, Care and Development, Professor, University of Victoria

Professor Larry Prochner has produced a systematic, scholarly and insightful analysis of the emergence of infant schools and kindergartens in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. This book will be a key reference work for all scholars in the field. Deborah Brennan, University of New South Wales

Early childhood education, care and development (ECD) is increasingly on national and international agendas, and Dr. Prochner's book is an extremely valuable contribution to those discussions. ECD's history, as presented by Dr. Prochner, is rich and diverse with manifestations that not only inform us about the past, but our present as well. This is an important contribution not only for ECD, but for those interested in social development more broadly. Alan R. Pence, UNESCO Chair in Early Childhood Education, Care and Development, Professor, University of Victoria

Larry Prochner is a professor of early childhood education at the University of Alberta.

Acknowledgments

1 Childhood and Education

2 Infant Schools in Britain

3 Infant Schools in the Case-Study Countries

4 Childcare and Daycare

5 Kindergarten from Germany to England and America

6 Kindergarten in the Case-Study Countries

7 Winnipeg Free Kindergarten Association

8 Kindergarten Union of New South Wales

9 Wellington Free Kindergarten Association

10 Conclusion: Change and Continuity