Editorial

Before providing an overview of the contents of this issue, I would like to thank those dedicated professionals who reviewed articles for the journal during 2014. The quality of articles published is directly connected to the feedback authors receive from reviewers. Our sincere thanks go to those listed at the end of this editorial – we acknowledge you!

The acceptance rate for Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood (CIEC) continues to be competitive. The table below indicates the acceptance rates from 2000 and shows that it was a little easier to have an article accepted in 2014 than it was in 2013.

CIEC acceptance/rejection rates 2000–2014

Year	Acceptance	Rejection
2014	38%	62%
2013	27%	73%
2012	26%	74%
2011	22%	78%
2010	22%	78%
2009	31%	69%
2008	29%	71%
2007	27%	73%
2006	33%	67%
2005	33%	67%
2004	43%	57%
2003	30%	70%
2002	33%	67%
2001	66%	34%
2000	75%	25%

This issue of the journal covers a wide range of topics, and includes a variety of methodological and theoretical approaches. The first article by Margaret Somerville and Carolyn Williams provides an updated review (2009–2013) of sustainability research in early childhood education. The analysis found that the number of articles published since the previous review had doubled. More thought-provoking, however, is the lack of methodological and theoretical rigour associated with many studies. The research was classified into three discourses, with research in the Connection to nature discourse lacking theoretical rigour due to unexamined assumptions, and research in the Children’s rights discourse focused on advocacy approaches, which precluded empirical evidence that could be used for practice. Research analysed in the third discourse, Post-human frameworks, was theoretically rigorous but disconnected from education for sustainability. This timely analysis sets a clear direction for future research relating to sustainability in early childhood education.

Young children’s mathematical activity and beliefs about mathematics prior to school is an area that has received little research attention. The second article by Jamie L Wernet and Julie Nurnberger-Haag used a case study to investigate one young child’s mathematical activity and beliefs prior to attending school. The researchers used a framework that viewed mathematics as a cultural activity to show how the focus child, Olivia, associated mathematics solely with writing numbers and letters. Despite her everyday engagement with mathematics and sophisticated mathematical thinking, activities such as map-making were precluded from what Olivia understood as mathematics. The insights from this research provide thinking points about mathematics for all those involved with young children in before-school contexts.

In the third article, Digital literacy practices and pedagogical moments: Human and non-human intertwining in early childhood education, Tove Lafton uses a combination of actor network theory (ANT) and Foucauldian understandings of discourse as a way to explore digital literacy practices in three Norwegian kindergartens. Lafton shows pedagogical moments that engage both human and non-human agency and argues that seeing agency as fluid requires more skills of children than simply connecting with adult knowledge. In a challenge to some current ideas about concepts of love, care and maternalism (Getting behind discourses of love, care and maternalism in early childhood education), Teresa A Aslanian considers how the historical development of these discourses affects professional understandings. She proposes that the field has a greater responsibility to reflect on these discourses, the aim of which is to comprehend the relationship between early childhood pedagogy and love, and therefore the ways in which children’s need for love can be provided in early childhood institutions.

Articles five and six engage in analysis of policies from two different countries. Donald Simpson and Rose Envy tackle the neoliberal discourse of ‘the new politics of parenting’ in England in an article titled Subsidizing early childhood education and care for parents on low income: Moving beyond the individualized economic rationale of neoliberalism. They use a case study and draw examples from four mothers to question the assumption that national and local subsidization of early childhood education can reduce susceptibility to low income. The complexity of the circumstances confronting these mothers provides good reasons for moving beyond assessing the provision of childcare in purely economic terms. The final article for this issue: Performativity, propriety and productivity: The unintended consequences of investing in the Early Years is by Kym Macfarlane and Ali Lakhani, who provide a policy analysis of a document that sets the direction for investing in the early years in Australia until 2020. Drawing on a range of theoretical and policy perspectives, the authors argue that because the policy associates healthy and proper child development with economic productivity and national goals, it has the potential to widen the social inequalities and health disparities it seeks to remedy.

The colloquium titled Reflections on foreign languages in Tunisian preschools comes from Mohamed Ridha Ben Maad. Thanks to Tanya Morin who reviewed the book Critical literacy in the early childhood classroom: Unpacking histories, unlearning privilege.

I hope you enjoy this issue and thanks again to those who reviewed for the journal in 2014, the editorial board members, and to those who reviewed books and provided colloquia.

Our thanks to the following reviewers of articles in 2014.

Reviewer	Affiliation
Deborah Albon	London Metropolitan University, UK
Jale Aldemir	Watson College of Education, USA
Camilla Anderson	Hedmark University College, Norway
Yarrow Andrew	Flinders University, Australia
Ramón Antonio Martínez	University of Texas, Austin
Sonja Arndt	The University of Waikato, New Zealand
Lorna Arnott	University of Strathclyde, Scotland, UK
Leonie Arthur	University of Western Sydney, Australia
Ysaaca Axelrod	University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA
Dan Battey	Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA
Angela Baum	University of South Carolina, USA
Dana Frantz Bentley	Buckingham Browne and Nichols School, Cambridge, USA
Beth Beschorner	Drake University, USA
Felicia Black	Long Island University, USA
Gloria Boutte	University of South Carolina, USA
Carol Brochin	University of Arizona, USA
Filomena Brogna	Teachers College, New York, USA
Liz Brooker	University of London, UK
Chris Brown	The University of Texas at Austin, USA
Sally Brown	Georgia Southern University, USA
Margaret Carr	The University of Waikato, New Zealand
Gerald Campano	University of Pennsylvania, USA
Ranita Cheruvu	William Paterson University of New Jersey, USA
Ameila Church	The University of Melbourne, Australia
Barbara Comber	Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Catherine Compton-Lilly	University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA
Tamara Cumming	Charles Sturt University, Australia
Christina Davidson	Charles Sturt University, Australia
Denise Davila	University of Georgia, USA
Luciana de Oliveira	University of Miami, USA
Katherine Delaney	University of Michigan, USA
Fabienne Doucet	New York University, USA
Angela Eckhoff	Old Dominion University, USA
Suzi Edwards	Australian Catholic University, Australia
Sue Elliott	University of New England, Australia
Grace Enriquez	Lesley University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Nikki Fairchild	University of Chichester, UK
Lori Falchi	La Escuelita, New York, New York, USA
Emmanuelle Fincham	Teachers College, Columbia University, USA
Celia Genishi	Teachers College, Columbia University, USA
Maria Paula Ghiso	Teachers College, Columbia University, USA
Megan Gibson	Queensland University of Technology, Australia
A Lin Goodwin	Teachers College, Columbia University, USA
Linda Graham	Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Beth Graue	University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
Keisha Green	University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Katy Gregg	Georgia Southern University, USA
Fay Hadley	Macquarie University, Australia
Laurie Harper	Salve Regina University, USA
Nor Hashima Hashim	Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
Amos Hatch	University of Tennessee, USA
Rachel Holmes	Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
Ana Christina Iddings	University of Arizona, USA
Jeanne Iorio	University of Hawaii, USA
Tambra Jackson	University of South Carolina, USA
Pamela Jewett	University of South Carolina, USA
Liz Jones	Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
Shereen Kader	Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, USA
Laurie Katz	The Ohio State University, USA
Devorah Kennedy	University of New Mexico, USA
Anna Kilderry	Deakin University, Australia
Sylvia Kind	Capilano University, Canada
Katharina Klucniok	Otto-Friedrich-Universitaet Bamberg, Germany
Linda Knight	Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Michelle Knobel	Montclair State University, New Jersey, USA
Susan Krieg	Flinders University, Australia
Candace Kuby	University of Missouri, USA
Susanna Lai-Yeung	The Open University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Tasha Laman	University of Louisville, USA
Yi-Chin Lan	The University of Texas at Austin, USA
Marie Lavelle	University of Plymouth, UK
Kyunghwa Lee	University of Georgia, USA
Libby Lee-Hammond	Murdoch University, Australia
Tara Lencl	Teachers College, Columbia University, USA
Audrey Lensmire	Augsburg College, USA
Helen Logan	Charles Sturt University, Australia
Felicity McArdle	Charles Sturt University, Australia
Samara Madrid	University of Wyoming, USA
Prisca Martens	Towson University, USA
Carmen Martinez-Roldan	Teachers College, Columbia University, USA
Laura May	Georgia State University, USA
Carmen Medina	Indiana University, USA
Sara Michael-Luna	Queens College, City University of New York, USA
Melinda Miller	Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Melissa Mosley Wetzel	University of Texas, Austin, USA
Peter Moss	University of London, Institute of Education, UK
Mark Nagasawa	Erikson Institute, Chicago, USA
Rebecca New	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
Joce Nuttall	Australian Catholic University, Australia
Jayne Osgood	London Metropolitan University, UK
Asiye Parlak Rakap	Yuzuncu Yil University College of Education, Turkey
Chris Peers	Monash University, Australia
Helen Penn	University of East London, UK
Anne Petriwskyj	Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Bree Picower	Montclair State University, USA
Raquel Plotka	Pace School of Education, New York, USA
Detra Price-Dennis	Teachers College, Columbia University, USA
Karen Prins	Pædagoguddannelsen Frøbel, Frøbel, Denmark
Sandra Quinones	Duquesne University, USA
Julia Rothwell	Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Sharon Ryan	Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA
Cinthya Saavedra	Utah State University, USA
Michelle Salazar Perez	New Mexico State University, USA
Prathyusha Sanagavarapu	University of Western Sydney, Australia
Lenny Sanchez	University of Missouri, USA
Iveta Silova	Lehigh University, USA
Efstratia Sofou	Thrasivoulou, Athens, Greece
Mariana Souto-Manning	Columbia University, New York, USA
Tamara Spencer	Montclair State University, New Jersey, USA
Katie Stover	Furman University, USA
Jennifer Sumsion	Charles Sturt University, Australia
Geoff Taggart	University of Reading, UK
Affrica Taylor	University of Canberra, Australia
Marek Tesar	The University of Auckland, New Zealand
Ebony Elizabeth Thomas	University of Pennsylvania, USA
Linda Trujillo	Kansas State University, USA
Cynthia Tyson	The Ohio State University, USA
Sarah vander Zanden	University of Northern Iowa, USA
Vivian Maria Vasquez	American University, USA
Reginald Williams	South Carolina State University, USA
Arlette Willis	University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA
Karen Wohlwend	Indiana University, USA
Sandie Wong	Charles Sturt University, Australia
Hazel Wright	Anglia Ruskin University, UK
Boh Young Lee	Western Illinois University, USA
Haemin Yu	Missouri State University, USA
Angie Zapata	University of Missouri, USA
Yangling Zhou	Hong Kong, Institute of Education, Hong Kong
Margarita Zisselsberger	Loyola University, USA
Melody Zoch	University of North Carolina, Greensboro, USA

Sue Grieshaber (PhD)Monash University, Melbourne, Australia