The Prepared Environment: Aesthetic Legacies and Early Childhood Classrooms

• In Event: Roundtable Session 18
  In Roundtable Session: Rethinking and Translating Early Childhood Education Traditions

Abstract

This paper surfaces the aesthetic legacies of Dewey, Montessori and Reggio Emilia. Each embodies a specific aesthetic that is linked to curriculum. Some of these aesthetic characteristics are shared - minimalism, economy of space and movement, access to materials from children's levels, light, color, real artifacts, specific purposeful materials, and long periods of choice time. The paper examines what aspects of these approaches have been appropriated by the early childhood community, what has been left behind, and implications for classroom practice. The paper also explores the relationship between commercialism and aesthetics. The items in the classroom make up a particular status quo aesthetic norm that from a critical perspective may not be meeting the needs of young children.

Authors

• Lisa P. Kuh, University of New Hampshire

• Melissa Rivard, Harvard University