Iram Siraj is Professor of Child Development & Education at the University of Oxford. She is Adjunct Professor at the University of Stavanger, Norway, and Visiting Professor at University College London and the University of Wollongong, Australia. Iram’s research projects have included leading on the Evaluation of the Foundation Phase across Wales and she is a principal investigator of the major DfE 17 -year study on Effective Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education (EPPSE 3-16, 1997-2014) and of the influential Researching Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years project (REPEY). She has led on longitudinal studies/RCTs as a principal investigator in a number of countries including the UK, Australia and Ireland. She is specialist adviser to the House of Commons Select Committee on early education and has undertaken reviews of the Foundation Phase for the Welsh Govt. and of the workforce for the Scottish Govt. She has published widely.
Early years and early childhood is a vibrant area of educational practice. The field is continually developing and is faced with contemporary advances, challenges, and debates in terms of theories, research, and practice. This collection, compiled by Iram Siraj-Blatchford, one of the most influential researchers in early years education, and Aziza Mayo, an emerging expert, provides an authoritative overview of early years education.Volume 1: Foundational and Contemporary Thought on Young Children, Home and Society looks at the works of the foundational thinkers in early years development. It then sets out the current theories about the pathways and mechanisms of children's cognitive and socio-emotional development in the early years and how the home, community and institutional contexts impact on this development. Volume 2: Implications for Early Childhood Curriculum and Pedagogy investigates international research in a range of topics such as effective home (and 'natural') learning environments and community and other settings in the early years. Furthermore, the volume looks at cultural diversity within and between societies, play and playful pedagogies and peer tutoring.Volume 3: Early Childhood Programs, Social Mobility and Social Justice puts forward research on international perspectives on unequal childhoods and how these inequalities can affect early childhood education. It also examines strategies and programs to increase the effectiveness of early childhood settings and how to sustain this development.Volume 4: Current Debates in Early Childhood Education Research considers effective practices of researching early years education by looking at examples of longitudinal studies and randomized controlled trials. It suggests instruments to monitor and evaluate early childhood education and effective application of mixed quantitative and qualitative research towards policy changes.
