Challenging the School Readiness Agenda in Early Childhood Education

Challenging the normative paradigm that school readiness is a positive and necessary objective for all young children, this book asserts that the concept is a deficit-based practice that fosters the continuation of discriminatory classifications. Tager draws on findings of a qualitative study to reveal how the neoliberal agenda of school reform based on high-stakes testing labels children as non-ready resulting in exclusionary measures that marginalize low-income Black children, affecting their overall schooling careers. Disrupting expected notions of readiness is imperative to ending practices of structural classism and racism in early childhood education.

List of contents

One – Introducing the Non-school ready child
Two – The Historical Context of the Non-school Ready Child
Three – The Ecology of School Readiness
Four – Higher Demands: Putting Pressure on the Non-school Ready Child
Five – Blaming the Parent
Six – Young Black Lives Matter
Seven – Inequities and Inequalities in Early Childhood Education Programs
Eight – A Call for Action

About the author

Miriam B. Tager is Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education at Westfield State University, USA.

Summary

Challenging the normative paradigm that school readiness is a positive and necessary objective for all young children, this book asserts that the concept is a deficit-based practice that fosters the continuation of discriminatory classifications. Tager draws on findings of a qualitative study to reveal how the neoliberal agenda of school reform based on high-stakes testing sorts and labels children as non-ready, affecting their overall schooling careers. Tager reflects critically on the relationship between race and school readiness, showing how the resulting exclusionary measures perpetuate the marginalization of low-income Black children from an early age. Disrupting expected notions of readiness is imperative to ending practices of structural classism and racism in early childhood education.

Product details

• Authors: Tager, Miriam B. Tager, Miriam B. (Westfield State University Tager
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 24.03.2017
• EAN: 9781138672390
• ISBN: 978-1-138-67239-0
• No. of pages: 124
• Series: Routledge Research in Early Childhood Education; Routledge Research in Early Childhood Education
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Education > Education system; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; Ethnic Studies, EDUCATION / Educational Policy & Reform / General, EDUCATION / Philosophy, Theory & Social Aspects, EDUCATION / Aims & Objectives, Educational strategies & policy, Moral and social purpose of education, Pre-school & kindergarten, Pre-school and kindergarten, Moral & social purpose of education, Educational strategies and policy, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Cultural & Ethnic Studies / General