Care and education of young children is crucial for a nation's development and the early years teacher is the most important person in a child's life after her parents. While early education has been in the hands of informally qualified educators in India for the past several decades, the National Education Policy 2020 has emphasized the need for qualified and skilled teachers to transact a quality early childhood programme.
Teaching the Young: The Early Childhood Development Profession in India brings together insights from academics, practitioners and organizations working on the professional development of early years teachers. This book is a must-read for developing a comprehensive understanding of the early childhood profession in India.
Kinnari Pandya is Associate Professor at Azim Premji University, where she works on early childhood education and teacher education.
Jigisha Shastri is visiting faculty with Azim Premji University and has contributed to ECCE research, curriculum and resource development.
Vrinda Datta is President of the Association of Early Childhood Education and Development, India
List of Acronyms Foreword Acknowledgements Preface Introduction
Section 1 History and Policy of Early Years Teacher Preparation
1. Promising Policy Developments and Challenges for Teacher/Caregiver Education in ECCE / Venita Kaul
2. Higher Education in the Development of Early Childhood Professionals / Prerana Mohite
3. The Role of NGOs in Developing ECCE Professionals in India: Experiences of Mobile Crèches / Mridula Bajaj
4. Continued Relevance of Nai Talim’s Pre-basic Teacher Education Curriculum / Varadarajan Narayanan and Rajashree Srinivasan
Section 2 Curriculum and Programmes for Pre-service Teacher Preparation
5. Curriculum and Pedagogy for Early Childhood Professional Development / Kinnari Pandya
6. An Early Educator’s Professional Development: Insights from Bhutan / Karma Gayleg
7. Cultural Tools for Children’s Literacy and Learning / Asha Singh
8. Role of Vocational Education in the Development of Early Childhood Professionals / Neela Dabir
9. Distance Education for Professional Development: IGNOU’s Diploma Programme / Rekha Sharma Sen, Pankaj Khare and Pranjali Dev
10. The 5Ws and 1H of Teachers’ Professional Development / Maya Menon
11. Implementing Inclusive Education in Early Childhood Settings: Preparing Teachers for the Role / Ankur Madan
12. Inclusive Classrooms: Challenges of Deaf Learners and their Teachers / Kanika M. Agarwal
Section 3 In-service Professional Development of Early Childhood Teachers
13. Role of DIETs in Training Preschool Teachers / Padma Yadav
14. Strengthening ECE in Anganwadis Through Ankur / Nilesh Nimkar
15. Professional Development Strategies: Akshara Foundation’s Experience / Vaijayanti K. and Gayatri Kiran
16. A Multimodal Approach to In-Service Capacity Development of Anganwadi Teachers / Yogesh G. R., Kinnari Pandya and M. Sreenivasa Rao
17. A Community Approach to Early Childhood Care and Education / Mary Punnoose and Shikha Kumari
18. Ensuring Quality through Teacher Appraisals and In-Service Education / Gauravi Jadhav, Valentine Borges and Elizabeth Mehta
19. In-service Programme for Teacher Educators for Early Years Education / Jigisha Shastri and Kinnari Pandya
Section 4 Resources for Early Childhood Educators
20. ECD Toolkits for Quality Early Years Education / Gauravi Jadhav and Jumana Rampurawala
21. Anganwadi Teacher’s Handbook: Azim Premji Foundation
22. Pre-Basic Education: A Syllabus for Teacher Training
Recommendations for Way Forward
About the Contributors