By Linda Fuller
The purpose of this assignment is to critique and evaluate the chosen article in terms of strengths and weakness and to demonstrate an understanding of an international educational approach to Early Years education. In addition it will explore the similarities and differences of the international approach to the current Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) working within my setting. Furthermore it will critically reflect upon the strategies within the approaches to identify possible issues and limitations of systems.
The article I have chosen is called ‘The struggle for Early Childhood Curricula: A comparison of the English Foundation Stage Curriculum, Te Wha”riki and Reggio Emilia. (Article found in Appendix A).
The article was written by Janet Soler and Linda Miller who are both senior lectures in the Faculty of Education and Languages at the Open University. Janet Soler’s doctoral and post graduate work has been in the areas of curriculum history and history of education’ (OU Knowledge Network 2014)
Linda Miller is a lecturer in Childhood studies and has spent a large part of her professional life developing courses and providing training for practitioners across the fields of early years education and care’ (Sage education 2014)
Within the article, Soler and Miller (2010) research three different international childhood curricula approaches and explore what impact an instrumental/vocationally based trend in education, has upon each curricula. For this critique I have chosen to focus on the Reggio Emilia approach.
Early Years Education is a name that refers to educational curriculums or programs that are providing care and education for children from birth to eight years old.
My research has highlighted several international early years’ educational programmes that are recognised worldwide. Te Wha’’riki, Highscope, Steiner and Reggio Emilia are all approaches that have