Geoff Taggart

University of Reading · Institute of Education

This paper places the pedagogies of love and care which typify the early years of practice in the context of evolution, arguing that, during an optimum window of development, young children are predisposed physiologically to benefit from the attention of multiple alloparents. This anthropological model of community stands in stark contrast to the i...

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It is widely recognized that children who encounter sensitive and responsive interactions in their settings go on to demonstrate superior cognitive, linguistic, and social skills. At the same time, with mothers either choosing or having to work, young children can expect to spend more of their time in nonfamilial paid care of different kinds. Resea...

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is based on a rich tradition of research in child development which recognizes that young children learn holistically, involving mind, body and emotions (e.g. Neaum, 2010). In contrast to traditional school learning, young children’s learning is necessarily creative and spontaneous. Relationship is central...

This ‘on the horizon’ piece outlines a mindful journaling activity which expresses the principles of contemplative pedagogy, making use of the hall which is used for university graduations. The space and time given to reflection was adventitious and unusual but, embedded more deeply in practice, could be a key feature of a compassionate university....

The practitioner’s own self is a resource in early childhood education and care (ECEC). It is proposed that an experiential training focusing on the ‘professional self’ helps to raise awareness of how psychological dispositions may impair or enhance quality of provision. A key concept in such training is emotional labour, explored with students thr...

This article builds upon an earlier attempt (Taggart 2011) to articulate a rationale for professional training in early childhood education and care (ECEC) which is ethical as opposed to one which is purely instrumental or rooted in a patriarchal notion of women's supposed unique suitability. The argument proposes that a feminist approach to ethics...

This paper argues that early childhood education and care (ECEC) has a legitimate aspiration to be a ‘caring profession’ like others such as nursing or social work, defined by a moral purpose. For example, practitioners often draw on an ethic of care as evidence of their professionalism. However, the discourse of professionalism in England complete...

This article compares the results obtained from using two different methodological approaches to elicit teachers' views on their professional role, the key challenges and their aspirations for the future. One approach used a postal/online questionnaire, while the other used telephone interviews, posing a selection of the same questions. The researc...

Thinking skills have been included in the National Curriculum alongside ‘key skills’ such as those to do with communication and information and communications technology (ICT). Thinking skills are expected to be developed at all key stages and centre on: information-processing skills, reasoning skills, enquiry skills, creative thinking skills and e...

Postmodern approaches to spiritual education, such as that proposed by the Children and Worldviews Project (Erricker and Erricker 1996a, 1996b, 1999, 2000a, 2000b, 2000c, 2001; Erricker, Erricker, Ota, Sullivan and Fletcher 1997; Erricker, Erricker, Ota, Sullivan and Logan 1994; Erricker, Ota and Erricker 2001) are strongly pragmatic and constructi...

This article represents a critique of the 'spiritual literacy' approach to spiritual education developed by Andrew Wright (e.g. 2000a), with particular reference to the inclusion of Michael Polanyi's theory of 'tacit knowledge'. Wright's assessment of the current state of religious education is summarised and his proposed method is outlined. Polany...

In this article I examine the nature of ecological spirituality as it is discovered within the growing field of holistic education. I introduce holistic education and attempt to describe its chief characteristics by reference to the thought of Dewey and Hegel. Dewey was the ultimate progressive, yet his attachment to scientific progress and disrega...

[1] Institute of Education, London, UK, 5–6 March 1999.

The question of the place of experience within spiritual development has been a vexed one. Believers in a spirituality unbounded by limitations of culture and religion advocate education into the experience of one's “true self” whereas believers in a communal notion of spirituality encourage educators to embed their programs of spiritual developmen...

If education is to be about ‘human flourishing’ (De Ruyter, 2004) as well as preparation for adulthood and work, then religious and citizenship education would seem to have a key contribution towards this goal, both offering opportunities for the exploration and development of a robust sense of identity. However, despite the opposition of most reli...