Call for Papers: November 2023 Special Issue on "Materiality and Cognitive Development"
Guest Editors:
Nicolás Alessandroni (Concordia Infant Research Laboratory, Concordia University, Montréal, Canada)
Juliene Madureira Ferreira (Faculty of Education and Culture, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland)
Materiality and Cognitive Development:
Contemporary Debates and Consequences for Early Childhood Education and Care
Contemporary psychology recognizes that human development is shaped by a complex system of interactions between the individual, others, and the environment. This understanding emphasizes that we develop through interactions with others in various social contexts, and through the meanings that are created during these interactions. Additionally, research in fields such as anthropology, sociology, psychology, and linguistics has shown that interactions with the world occur through multiple forms of communication, including verbal dialogue, gestures, and body movements.
The field of psychology and cognitive sciences is gaining momentum in its exploration of the role that material culture plays in shaping human development and its potential to foster new opportunities for interaction across multiple timescales and social contexts. This is particularly relevant in early childhood, where the foundations for many cognitive processes are laid.
In recent years, various perspectives such as embodied, ecological, enactive, extended, and embedded approaches to cognition have provided valuable insights into the situated dynamics of interactions involving objects. These perspectives have the potential to significantly contribute to our understanding of the relationship between materiality and cognitive development in young children and broaden the theories used to create and improve practices to support children’s development. With this special issue, we aim to delve deeper into this topic and gain a better understanding of how interactions between children, adults, and objects shape cognitive development in early childhood and any potential consequences this may have for Early Childhood Education and Care. We welcome submissions that explore the implications of contemporary perspectives for theories and methods in the field, as well as empirical studies that demonstrate the utility of these approaches.
We expect that this special issue will be of interest to academics in psychology (e.g., cognitive, developmental, educational) and related fields and will have practical implications for education policy development and implementation.
Manuscript Preparation and Submission Process
Details about the author guidelines and submission process can be found at the journal website ejop.psychopen.eu ("For Authors"). Please specify in the cover letter the fact that the paper is a candidate for the special issue ‘Materiality and Cognitive Development’. Articles should generally be no longer than 6,500 words, including references and appendices. Please justify in the cover letter if you think you need more space.
Important Dates
Full article submissions deadline: June 1, 2023.
Expected publication date: November 2023.
Contact
For inquiries regarding this call for papers, please contact the guest editors at nicolas.alessandroni@concordia.ca or juliene.madureiraferreira@tuni.fi.