Chapter 2: The Possibilities and Challenges of “Not Knowing”: Early Childhood Teachers’ Knowledge and Thinking in Uncertain Times.

The idea that there is an objective body of early childhood knowledge that practitioners can use to guide their practice has been challenged in recent years (e.g., Cannella, 1997; MacNaughton, 2000). Scholars often known as “reconceptualists” have called for a major epistemological rethink about the role and place of developmental knowledge of the child in early childhood practice. Specifically, various reconceptualists have argued that developmental thinking and Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) is not based on objective body of knowledge of the child but on a highly politicized body of knowledge that is contradictory, replete with silences and omissions and oppressive (Silin, 1995; Cannella, 1997; Grieshaber & Cannella, 2001). Furthermore, they argue that this body of knowledge serves to regulate and govern young children, parents and early childhood staff because it is regarded as a set of facts about the child that are true and right. Without access to these facts, we in early childhood education cannot act appropriately nor correctly with children, understand them, or even think about them (MacNaughton 2000).