Guest editors: Dr. Fikile Nxumalo (University of Texas at Austin) and Dr. Nikki Rotas (University of Alberta)  

Building on the potential invigorations of bringing interdisciplinary perspectives into conversation with early childhood environmental education, this special issue invites critical and creative interventions into questions of research and practice in early childhood. In this special issue, we invite papers that reconceptualize environmental education in ways that situate teaching and learning within current environmental precarities, intervene into dominant child-nature discourses, trouble normative methodologies, and unsettle the universalisms and omissions of the Anthropocene. 

Rédacteurs invités: Joanne Lehrer (Université du Québec en Outaouais), Christine Massing (Université de Regina), Scott Hughes (Université Mount Royal), Alaina Roach O’Keefe (Université de l’Île-du-Prince-Édouard)

Ce numéro spécial est donc consacré aux partages d’histoires d’espoir et d’actions concertées, reliant la théorie à la pratique. Nous attendons des propositions canadiennes et internationales liées aux pratiques d’apprentissage professionnel qui s’étendent au-delà des programmes individuels, mettant en vedette des partenariats et des efforts de mobilisation communautaire à l’intérieur et à travers différents contextes éducatifs liés à la petite enfance (Centres de la Petite Enfance, maternelle, halte-garderie, etc.) et en lien avec diverses thématiques : philosophiques, pratiques, critiques, transformatrices, personnelles et d’espoir. 

Guest editors: Joanne Lehrer (Université du Québec en Outaouais), Christine Massing (University of Regina), Scott Hughes (Mount Royal University), and Alaina Roach O’Keefe (University of Prince Edward Island)

This special issue, focused on professional learning in early childhood education and care, is dedicated to sharing stories of hope and coordinated action, linking theory with practice. We seek Canadian and international submissions related to professional learning practices that extend beyond individual programs, showcasing partnerships and community mobilization efforts within and across various settings for young children (child care, Kindergarten, drop-in centres, etc.) in relation to philosophical, practical, critical, transformative, personal, and/or hopeful themes. 

Kindness at School: What Children’s Drawings Reveal About Themselves, Their Teachers, and Their Learning Communities by Dr. John-Tyler Binfet, published in the latest issue of Journal of Childhood Studies, has received some fantastic media attention in British Columbia.

Please check out some of the press coverage:

• Radio interview with Dr. Binfet
• UBC Okanagan study finds kids see teaching as an act of kindness - BCLocalNews.com
• Students see teaching as an act of kindness - Infonews.ca

The story has also been picked up by Kelowna Capital News, Kelowna Now, Castlegar Source, The Boundary Sentinel, The Trail Champion, The Rossland Telegraph, and MyInforms.com.

Congratulations, Dr. Binfet. 

This special issue of Journal of Childhood Studies imagines contributors taking up the provocation of the title (or a variation) to explore the ludic form across not only the early childhood landscape but through the myriad human activities that intersect and weave through that landscape and beyond. The Editors will consider works in and through: performing arts, performance studies, the visual arts, the child’s eyes, psychology, teacher education, educational research, teacher practice, play theory, and early learning and care. This list is by no means exhaustive, leaving open a playful approach to imagining play as otherwise.