Taking Children and Young People Seriously
A Caring Relational Approach to Education

Connects development, learning, and societal conditions with care and motivation for children and young people.

Mariane Hedegaard (Author), Anne Edwards (Author)

9781108833486, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 June 2023

350 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 2.2 cm, 0.6 kg

'The fruitful collaboration between two distinguished scholars has resulted in a unique book about how children develop and how adults can 'work relationally' to support them. This theoretically sophisticated contribution offers concepts and inspiration for professional practice. The book, richly illustrated by empirical examples from children's everyday life, is highly relevant for students, practitioners, educators, and researchers.' Oddbjørg Skjær Ulvik, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway

Children and young people are active agents with motives and intentions who can contribute to their social worlds. Taking children seriously involves both accessing their perspectives as they make sense of the world and working relationally with them to guide their motive orientations. In this book, Hedegaard and Edwards draw upon their own and others' research on children from birth to school leaving age to advocate for relational support for learners and to emphasise the caring aspects of this support. The authors provide a scholarly account of the cultural-historical underpinnings of their caring relational approach, while bringing these ideas to life through examples of practices in families and in more formal settings. Written for those who work with children and young people in varied capacities, this book reveals the knowledge and skills required for the subtle and reciprocal work of supporting the learning and development of children and young people.

1. Taking Children and Young People Seriously: A Caring Relational Approach to Education
2. A Cultural-Historical Approach to Children's Development and Childhood
3. Working Relationally with Other Professionals and Families
4. Very Young Children: Taking a Double Perspective in Understanding their Development
5. Care and Education in Kindergarten with Play as the Core Activity
6. Engaging with Knowledge When Starting School
7. Care-full Approaches to Pedagogy
8. The Primary School Age: Enabling the Agentic Learner
9. Developmental Teaching as a Double Move Between Subject Knowledge and Children's Appropriation of Personal Knowledge
10. Adolescence and Transitions into Early Adulthood
11. A Caring Relational Approach to Education: Implications for Practice and Policy
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Educational psychology [JNC]