Froebel and Social Justice

This open access book introduces the challenging and global themes of social justice connecting them to Froebelian early childhood education today. The book offers critical discussions of four key goals of social justice: equity, human rights, diversity and participation, and four freedoms: from want, of worship, of speech and from fear. These themes are applied to everyday early childhood practices in addition to providing opportunities for deeper reflection of historical contexts and indigenous practices. The chapters take a deep dive into each of these concepts, critically examining whether or not Froebel's vision was intentional in relation to issues of social justice and the degree to which he articulated his thinking in this respect. Examples of babies, young children, families and educators provide a springboard for accessible and holistic social justice practices and include reflective questions, highlighting tensions within practice. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by The Froebel Trust.