Editing a new book

Our editorial team met again today to discuss the publishers' response to our submission. We have a good plan.

Mentoring group - Editing a book

I have held regular mentoring meetings with two groups of colleagues to work on developing book proposals, then editing books as part of our Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group (ECIR). Our Springer book group met today (Sheena Elwick, Shukla Sikder, Lysa Dealtry) and our Multilingual Matters book group have just had their proposal accepted and we are about to meet to discuss the proposed contract from the publisher. 

Lysa Dealtry, Sharynne McLeod, Shukla Sikder, Sheena Elwick

JUST PUBLISHED - Early Childhood Voices: Children, Families, Professionals

Early Childhood Voices: Children, Families, Professionals 

Editors: Linda Mahony, Sharynne McLeod, Andi Salamon, Jenny Dwyer 

Publisher: Springer 

Publication date: 2024 

URL: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-56484-0

Springer's description of the book:

"Offers real life evidence-based examples and application to professional practice Brings together professionals across multiple disciplines from 17 countries Enacts the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

This revolutionary book explores theoretical and practical issues of listening to children, families, and professionals who advocate for and work with young children to promote social justice and improve their lives, and to ensure no one is left behind. Listening to children is explored across multiple disciplines internationally and highlights the practical application of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in the context of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The work explores innovations, theories, and partnerships, and draws on the voices of children, families, early childhood educators, speech-language pathologists, and multidisciplinary teams from across 17 countries to provide a shared vision for equity, peace and justice for all while integrating social environmental, economic, and dimensions of sustainability. Topics include giving children a voice; methods for listening to and documenting young children's perspectives; listening to and working in partnership with families, educators, and professionals; and wellness and wellbeing of young children and their families across multiple dimensions."

This book was the result of collaboration and mentoring with members of the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group (ECIR) after the Early Childhood Voices Conference 2020 (ECV2020). It has been an absolute pleasure working with my co-editors, the chapter authors who presented papers at ECV2020 and our reviewers.

ECV2024 publications committee

Our ECV2024 publications committee had an exciting meeting today.

Our book from ECV2020 is in the final page proofing stage before publication:

Mahony, L., McLeod, S., Salamon, A., Dwyer, J. (Eds.) (2024, in press). Early childhood voices: Children, families, professionals. Springer. https://link.springer.com/book/9783031564833

We have had conversations with commissioning editors from Multilingual Matters and Springer for two books to be published based on papers from ECV2022 and ECV2024

ECV2024 publications committee:
Dr Shukla Sikder, Prof Sharynne McLeod, Dr Sheena Elwick,
Dr Helen Blake, Arifa Rahman (Dr Suzanne C. Hopf)

Finishing a book: Early Childhood Voices: Children, Families and Professionals

Today I finished everything that needed to be done for the permissions and revised chapters  for our book that will be published by Springer titled "Early Childhood Voices: Children, Families and Professionals"

I haveco-edited the book with Linda Mahony, Andi Salamon and Jenny Dwyer and have co-authored chapters 1, 9, 10, 12, 16, and 18.

1. Why the Voices of Young Children Matter -  Linda Mahony, Sharynne McLeod, Andi Salamon and Jenny Dwyer 
2. Space, Voice, Audience, and Influence: The Lundy Model and Early Childhood - Carmel Ward and Laura Lundy Listening to Children in their Daily Context 
3. Language and Life: Going into Space - Stephen Kemmis and Andi Salamon 
4. Infant Emotional Capital Practices as Voice in Research and Pedagogy - Andi Salamon 
5. Contributing to SDGs through Conceptual PlayWorlds: Changing the STEM Story for Children, Families and Teachers - Anne Suryani, Susan March, Marilyn Fleer and Prabhat Rai 
6. Children’s Mathematical Graphics Illustrating Inner Voices: A Literature Review - Jenny Dwyer, Amy MacDonald and Shukla Sikder 
7. Early Childhood Friendships as a Significant Value of Education for Sustainability: The Voices of Young Children and Educators - Tamara Pribišev Beleslin and Sanja Partalo 
8. “Ears to Listen so I can Hear”: A Holistic Self-Report Tool of Children’s Listening at Preschool - Lysa Dealtry and Laura McFarland 
9. Jamaican Children’s Drawings of Talking in Jamaican Creole and English - Karla Washington, Rachel Wright Karem, Corrine Macaluso, Cecilia Schwartz and Sharynne McLeod 
10. Vietnamese-Australian Families: Children’s Language Competence and Home Language Maintenance - Van H. Tran, Sharynne McLeod, Sarah Verdon, Kate Margetson and Ben Phạm 
11. Many Voices, Many Languages: Listening and Learning from South African Children - Michelle Pascoe, Mikateko Ndhambi, Olebeng Mahura, Nomfundo Peaceful Buthelezi, Nicole Husselmann and Babalwa Ludidi 
12. When are Speech Sounds Learned and Why is this Important for Children to be Heard? - Sharynne McLeod, Kathryn Crowe and Jane McCormack
13. Giving Voice to Young Children Navigating Complex Life Challenges through a Strengths Approach - Linda Mahony and Angela Fenton 
14. After the Disaster: Facilitating Children to Talk of their Feelings and Experiences - Sarah Eagland, Michael Curtin and Tracey Parnell 
15. Peep in the Pandemic: Peep Practitioners Listening to Parents and Families - Hannah Hale, Elspeth McCartney and Muriel MacKenzie Professionals Learning from Listening to Children 
16. Sustainable Leadership Approaches to Retain Early Childhood Educators - Belinda Downey, Will Letts and Sharynne McLeod 
17. Multimodal Analyses of Children’s Voices as a Means for Critical Teachers’ Education - Fernanda Liberali, Emilia Cipriano Sanches and Sandra Cavaletti Toquetão 
18. Refusing to Silence Early Childhood Voices: The Establishment of the Early Childhood Voices Conference - Sharynne McLeod, Carolyn Gregoric, Tamara Cumming and Belinda Downey

Celebrating the submission of our Springer book

This morning the editors of "Early childhood voices in the lives of children, families, and professionals" joined together via Zoom to celebrate the submission of our book to Springer.

Here is information about the Table of Contents:  https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2023/08/submitted-early-childhood-voices-in.html

Editors - Dr Linda Mahony, Prof Sharynne McLeod, Jenny Dwyer, Dr Andi Salamon

 

Here is the Foreword written by Prof Fran Press

This book is a remarkable achievement. It draws together scholars from an array of disciplines, from across the world, to interrogate what it means to elicit and engage meaningfully with the many languages of very young children. Steeped in a commitment to children’s rights, each chapter is also mapped against the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These Goals ‘recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests’. (United Nations https://sdgs.un.org/goals)

It is a testament to the richness and breadth of this edited collection that it traverses multiple dimensions of children’s experiences on the planet, including home and family, the early childhood setting, friendship, the experience and aftermath of climate change impacts, and the disruption of the pandemic. It asks us to consider how we can address gender inequalities by actively engaging young girls in the early childhood setting in STEM. It asks us to consider how the mathematical graphics of young children are a form of children’s expression. Many of the chapters provoke us to be better at redressing the inequalities and/or disadvantages children might face.

A theme that runs throughout the book is the central role of communication. As Kemmis and Salamon remind us, the practice of communication not only creates a pathway for children to participate in the decisions that affect them (CRC Article 3), but it is also integral to our understanding and construction of the world. Through thoughtful and research informed contributions, the book’s authors cause us to reflect upon how we, as adults, might consciously tune in and recognise children’s many languages, including the embodied social and emotional language (Salamon) that accompanies or precedes verbal language. A number of chapters offer specific models or tools that we can draw upon to better obtain children’s insights and perspectives. The framework for children’s participation proposed by Ward and Lundy, for example, creates the conditions which invite and validate children’s perspectives but also recognises that adults may need to play an additional role in providing children access to information that enables them to form a view.

As language plays such a central role in communication, other chapters specifically address issues concerning children’s speech and language including interventions for children’s language acquisition. Some of these contributions illuminate the multilingual worlds that children inhabit and the multilingualism that many children practice and are adept in. Children’s right to maintain their home language is highlighted. These chapters are written with a consciousness of the trap of cultural specificity and how this can colour or limit our capacity as adult ‘experts’ to closely listen to children and, if required, provide appropriate support for speech development.

The rich insights to be gained from these collective offerings underscore both universality and particularity. Through these writings we can see where a shared experience such as the pandemic gave rise to unique and creative responses to reaching children and their families so that children could continue their educations (CRC Article 29), while also bringing into sharp relief the inequalities that exist within and between nations, that the SDGs exhort us to address.

It is incumbent upon adults to uphold children’s rights and to design and implement strategies that strive to attain the SDGs. Professionals who work with young children need to consciously seek ways to activate children’s rights backed by, as Downey et al. remind us, leadership that ensures ethical practices toward children. In doing so, we not only respect the right of the individual child, but we also work toward the collective good of all children.

In closing, I would like to acknowledge to all the authors, that I felt honoured to be invited to write the foreword for this book, and deeply appreciative of its content.

Professor Frances Press, Head and Dean, Education and Professional Studies Griffith University, Australia

Editors' meeting for our Early Childhood Voices chapter to be published by Springer

We had a great meeting as editors for our Early Childhood Voices chapter to be published by Springer. The book is due for submission 30th June, 2023

We have 19 chapters in the book. Ten chapters are currently being copyedited. The remainder are close to finalisation. It is looking great.

Andi Salamon, Sharynne McLeod, Linda Mahony, Jenny Dwyer

Early Childhood Voices book - Editorial meeting

The editorial team for Early Childhood Voices met for the first time in 2023. The book is due in June 2023. We have chapters from across the world - and almost all have been reviewed and many have been returned after review. It is going to be a great book.

Editors: Linda Mahony, Sharynne McLeod, Jenny Dwyer, Andi Salamon

Springer book - Early Childhood Voices

We have 11 chapters submitted and under review for the Early Childhood Voices book to be published by Springer. 10 more chapters are being finalised. 

Linda Mahony, Sharynne McLeod, Jenny Dwyer

Springer book contract - "Early Childhood Voices: Children, Families, Professionals"

I have just signed a new book contract with Springer to edit "Early Childhood Voices: Children, Families, Professionals" with my colleagues Linda Mahony, Andi Salamon and Jenny Dwyer. The book arose from our Early Childhood Voices 2020 conference and presenters from across the world have agreed to write chapters expanding on their presentations. It is going to be a great book.

New book contract with Springer “Early childhood voices in the lives of children, families, and practitioners”

Today we received news that our Springer book proposal titled “Early childhood voices in the lives of children, families, and practitioners” has been accepted for inclusions in the International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development series and a contract will be coming soon. Congratulations to my fellow editors Linda Mahony, Andi Salamon and Jenny Dwyer.

Book meeting

We received great feedback from Springer about our book proposal for "Early childhood voices in the lives of children, families, and practitioners". Today was our last book meeting for the year. We have been working hard as an editorial team.

Linda Mahony, Sharynne McLeod, Andi Salamon, Jenny Dwyer