Editorial CIEC Volume 27(1), March 2026

Welcome to the first issue of 2026!This is a thought-provoking issue with some noteworthy ideas, and we hope you enjoy engaging with them.This issue begins with an article by Mandy Cooke titled Conceptualising Risk-Taking in Educational Settings for Enabling Pedagogies of Courage.Risk taking in early childhood educational settings has been discussed in various forms for over 15 years.Cooke writes about the Australian context, which she says is one of the most risk averse in the 'developed' world, and that a 2022 study showed that Australian parents are the most risk averse in the world.Given the situation, Cooke identified some 'concerning silences' and created a framework using the concepts of pedagogical risk-taking and pedagogies of courage, with the aim of using these concepts to build a culture of risk-raking.The second and third articles grapple with neoliberalism from slightly different perspectives.Liliana Fernandes (The Economics of Human Development: 'Investing in Children' or 'Children as an Investment'?And Why It Matters) uses a critical analysis to tease out how traditional human capital theory (HCT) and the economics of human development (EHD) position children.Fernandes points out the similarities and concludes that both are reductionist and both privilege economic returns ahead of human development.On a more specific level, Melissa Sherfinski and Hilary Woodrum consider time in When Public Preschool Teachers' Classroom Time Is Left Behind.They explored how 22 preschool teachers in the USA dealt with policy initiatives related to 'time for learning'.Like Fernandes' article, Sherfinski and Woodrum identify that the basis of the scheme is ultimately economic and about children as future citizens and economic contributors.Nevertheless, they found that more experienced teachers were positioned to be able to 'play' with time in ways that resisted the policy but that came at a cost for them.The fourth article addresses a topic about which little has been written: death education in early childhood education.In Swedish preschools, tragic events or those involving grief are to be handled in accordance with institutional crisis response plans, or what is commonly called a 'crisis box'.Authors Tünde Puskás, Anita Andersson and Virginia Slaughter explore preschool practitioner reflections about use of the crisis box in their article From a Crisis Management Tool to Proactive Death Education in Swedish Preschools.Using focus group interviews and a workshop, they engage with ideas concerning the didactics of death to investigate a disconnect between practitioner discomfort with teaching about death and children's needs for comfort and support when undertaking this teaching.They make recommendations for how to support practitioners from a curriculum perspective and in response to specific events.The emotional labour of educators working with families is a neglected area of research and is addressed by Melanie Dickerson, Marianne Fenech and Tina Stratigos in Emotional Labour While Working with Families: Potential Affordances for Supporting Early Childhood Educators' Wellbeing.The authors attribute the use of particular theoretical and methodological approaches