Early Childhood Voices: Children, Families, Professionals

Linda Mahony, EdD, is a Senior Lecturer in Professional Experience at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia. She has over 30 years' experience in early years education with 20 years as a classroom teacher of young children. This has given her insight into the lived experiences of teachers and their important work with young children and their families. Linda's research has a social justice and equity perspective and focuses on the nexus between early childhood or school, and family to explore teachers' pedagogical practices for promoting social and emotional well-being and learning for young children experiencing parental separation and divorce, and partnerships with family and community so that these young children can break through the barriers to their well-being and learning.

 Sharynne McLeod, PhD, is a speech-language pathologist and professor of speech and language acquisition at Charles Sturt University, Australia. She is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and the Royal Society of New South Wales, was an Australian Research Council Future Fellow, and has received Honors of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and Life Membership of Speech Pathology Australia. Her research primarily focuses on listening to children and supporting children's communication, speech, and multilingualism. She has advocated for communication rights at the United Nations and the World Health Organization based on special issues of the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. The Australian Newspaper named her Australia's Research Field Leader in Audiology, Speech and Language Pathology (2018, 2019, 2020, 2022) and Best in the World based on the "quality, volume and impact" of research in the field (2019, 2023).

 Andi Salamon, PhD, is an early childhood teacher and Senior Lecturer who taught education studies at Charles Sturt University during the making of this book. She has co-edited a book as part of the Routledge Thinking about Pedagogy in Early Childhood Education series focusing on multiple identities in early childhood. This understanding of the multiplicity of early childhood identities helps inform a deeper understanding of the multiplicity of early childhood voices, as do over 20 years' experience as a teacher, director, leader, and researcher in the field. Her doctoral study became the springboard to her 2019 Jean Denton Memorial Scholarship research project, where Andi continues to advocate for infants' rights and quality early years experiences. She brings her passion to uphold children's optimal learning into practice with pre-service teachers.

 Jenny Dwyer is an early childhood teacher with over 30 years' experience working in a wide range of early childhood contexts. She has worked as a lecturer in early childhood at Charles Sturt University for over 10 years and continues to work as a sessional academic while completing her PhD, investigating young children's mathematics play and learning. Her focus is recognising and valuing the importance of the rights of the child, who from birth is capable of learning and communicating through multiple languages. Jenny's interest extends to children's ability to use languages and mental imagery to develop abstract thinking and symbolic thought as expressed through imaginary play and their use of drawn symbols and signs as the foundation for understanding the abstract nature of mathematics. Jenny's research will examine the socio-cultural influences on children's mathematical signs and symbols within their play, known as mathematical graphicacy, which helps develop abstract thinking and symbolic thought viewed as being necessary for learning mathematic notation in later years.

Part 1. Listening to Children.- Chapter 1. Why the Voices of Young Children Matter (Mahony et al).- Chapter 2. Space, Voice, Audience, and Influence: The Lundy Model and Early Childhood (Ward and Lundy).- Part 2. Listening to Children in their Daily Context.- Chapter 3. Language and Life: Going into Space (Kemmis and Salamon).- Chapter 4. Infant Emotional Capital Practices as Voice in Research and Pedagogy (Salamon).- Chapter 5. Contributing to SDGs through Conceptual PlayWorlds: Changing the STEM Story for Children, Families and Teachers (Suryani et al).- Chapter 6. Children's Mathematical Graphics Illustrating Inner Voices: A Literature Review (Dwyer et al).- Chapter 7. Early Childhood Friendships as a Significant Value of Education for Sustainability: The Voices of Young Children and Educators (Beleslin and Partalo).- Chapter 8. "Ears to Listen so I can Hear": A Holistic Self-Report Tool of Children's Listening at Preschool (Dealtry and McFarland).- Chapter 9. Jamaican Children'sDrawings of Talking in Jamaican Creole and English (Washington et al).- Chapter 10. Vietnamese-Australian Families: Children's Language Competence and Home Language Maintenance (McLeod et al).- Chapter 11. Many Voices, Many Languages: Listening and Learning from South African Children (Pascoe et al).- Chapter 12. When are Speech Sounds Learned and Why is this Important for Children to be Heard? (McLeod et al).- Part 3. Listening to Children During Challenging Times.- Chapter 13. Giving Voice to Young Children Navigating Complex Life Challenges through a Strengths Approach (Mahony and Fenton).- Chapter 14. After the Disaster: Facilitating Children to Talk of their Feelings and Experiences (Curtin et al).- Chapter 15. Peep in the Pandemic: Peep Practitioners Listening to Parents and Families (Hale et al).- Part 4. Professionals Learning from Listening to Children.- Chapter 16. Sustainable Leadership Approaches to Retain Early Childhood Educators (Downey et al).- Chapter 17. Multimodal Analyses of Children's Voices as a Means for Critical Teachers' Education (Liberali et al).- Chapter 18. Refusing to Silence Early Childhood Voices: The Establishment of the Early Childhood Voices Conference (McLeod et al)