Chapter 20: Past As Prologue: Doing Historical Research in Early Childhood Education

Interest in the lives of young children and their education and care is expected of parents, early education program professionals, teacher educators, pediatricians, and child advocates. Over recent decades, however, heightened investigations in the field of early childhood education and a commitment to understand societal responses to the needs of young children have emerged from economists, public policymakers, university professors, health professionals, and historians. The widening awareness of and interest in young children’s lives in the United States and elsewhere is represented by the following data reports that reflect an expanding awareness of young children.

For the historian of early childhood education, these data signify the changing work lives of fathers and mothers, the entry of ever younger children in public school systems, and the development of stronger professional requirements for entering and remaining in the field of early childhood education, all potential topics of historical research.