ABSTRACT

There are several reasons for our choice of the topic of “pedagogies of social emotionaldevelopment” as the theme for this guest-edited issue of the Asia-Pacific Journal ofResearch in Early Childhood Education. From its beginnings, early childhood educationemphasized children’s social emotional development. This was true both for the nurseryand play schools attended by children of the wealthy and the settlement house preschoolprograms intended to give children of immigrants and the poor proper (that is, white middleclass) emotional dispositions and values. Later in the 20th century, the core of the preschoolcurriculum became play and social interaction, with an emphasis on making friends,sharing, and self-expression.However, this tradition of emphasizing the role early childhood education can play inchildren’s social and emotional development is at risk in the contemporary era, whereinvestment in preschools is increasingly justified in terms of its contribution to academicsuccess and longer term economic payoffs.

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