The slow pace of reform in a time of criticism, crisis, creativity and opportunity: a call for transformative visions and actions

Abstract

ABSTRACT The recently revised NAEYC position papers and the fourth edition of NAEYC’s Developmentally Appropriate Guidelines (NAEYC. 2022. Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs: ServingChildren from Birth Through Age 8, edited by S. Friedman, 4th ed. Washington: National Association for the Education of Young Children) focus on children’s strengths and diversity, and the need for equitable opportunities in early childhood programmes. We applaud these recent shifts. Yet previous ideas of risk, abnormality and inappropriateness are still embedded in the document, with still hidden, and negative, consequences for children, their families and communities, and for the educators and programmes that serve them. Drawing on critiques of developmentalism, the ideas of postdevelopmentalism and the framework of governmentality, we engage in a dialogue between an early career teacher educator and long-time advocate for DAP change and explore the control DAP has over early childhood education programmes. Despite claims that the fourth edition is too ‘woke’, we challenge educators and organisations in the USA (and elsewhere) to move away from the past and current approaches that still focus on children as innocent and in need of protection, as well as normal (and therefore, abnormal) childhood(s) – and to open up towards an education that is more fluid, one that focuses on children’s diverse strengths, unimagined interests and as-yet-unknown possibilities.