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rachel-langford

Rachel Langford

Professor Emeritus
EducationPhD
Areas of ExpertiseCanadian child care movement; Early childhood policy; Ethics of care; Early childhood pedagogy.

Prior to teaching post-secondary students, I worked for 17 years in a range of settings, from early childhood to elementary education. I am the past president of the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario which is committed to enhancing the professional recognition of early childhood educators in Ontario. I regularly speak provincially and nationally to professional and community audiences about early childhood issues.

Research interests:

  • Canadian child care movement.
  • Development of childcare policy in Canada.
  • Theorizing the care of young children.

Research projects:

  • Project: Caring about care: An examination of care in Canadian childcare
  • Year: 2016-2019
  • Role: Principal Investigator 
  • Co-investigators: Patrizia Albanese (Toronto Metropolitan University), Susan Prentice (University of Manitoba) and Kate Bezanson (Brock University)
  • Funded by: SSHRC
  • Project: ECEC sector professionalism as a Canadian child care movement strategy in an era of neoliberalism
  • Year: 2011-2015
  • Role: Principal Investigator
  • Co-investigators: Patrizia Albanese (Toronto Metropolitan University) and Susan Prentice (University of Manitoba)
  • Funded by: SSHRC

Books:

  • Langford, R. (2019). Theorizing feminist ethics of care in early childhood practice: Possibilities and dangers. Bloomsbury Academic. 
  • Allen, K. E., Langford, R., Cowdery, G. E., Nolan, K., Cipparrone, B., & Paasche, C. L. (2018). Inclusion in early childhood programs children with exceptionalities (7th ed.). Nelson.
  • Langford, R., Prentice, S., & Albanese, P. (2017). Caring for children: Social movements and public policy in Canada. UBC Press.

Chapters:

  • Langford, R., & White, J. (2019). Conceptualizing care as being and doing in ethical interactions and sustaining caring relationships in the early childhood institution. In R. Langford (Ed.), Theorizing feminist ethics of care in early childhood practice: Possibilities and dangers (pp. 59-77). Bloomsbury Academic Press. 
  • Langford, R. (2019). From the scientific child to the reconceptualized child in Canadian university and college early childhood laboratory schools. In O. N. Saracho (Ed.), Contemporary perspectives on research on child development laboratory schools in early childhood education (pp. 101-116). Information Age Publishing INC. 
  • Richardson, B., & Langford, R. (2019). Citizen engagement in childcare policy: Examining childcare policy problematizations in Canadian newspaper articles from 2008 to 2015. In S. Phillipson & S. Garvis (Eds.), Volume III early childhood education in the 21st Century: Teachers and families (pp. 23-36). Routledge.
  • Langford, R., & Richardson, B. (2019). Working towards change: The ECEC workforce in Canada. In S. Phillipson & S. Garvis (Eds.), Teachers’ and families’ perspectives in ECEC: ECE in the 21 century (Vol 1., pp. 25-37). Routledge.
  • Richardson, B. & Langford, R. (2018). ECEC in Canada: Consistently inconsistent childcare policy. In S. Garvis, S. Phillipson & H. Harju-Luukkainen (Eds.), International perspectives on ECEC: ECE in the 21st century (Vol I., pp. 20-33). Routledge.
  • Langford, R. (2012). An early childhood professional’s authority: How can it be used for influencing and instigating action for social goods? In V. Pacini-Ketchabaw & L. Prochner (Eds.), Re-situating Canadian early childhood education (pp. 73-89). Peter Lang Publishing.
  • Langford, R. (2012). Innovations in provincial early learning curriculum frameworks. In N. Howe & L. Prochner (Eds.), Recent perspectives on early childhood education and care in Canada (pp. 206-228). University of Toronto Press.

Journal articles:

Professional publications:

  • Bezanson, K., Langford, R., & Banks, M. (2019) No more baby steps: Political insights from the 2018 election for moving childcare policy forward in Ontario. eceLINK, 9-17
  • Halfon, S & Langford, R. (2015). Developing and supporting a high quality child care workforce in Canada: What are the barriers to change? In Moving beyond baby steps: Building a child care plan for today’s families, our selves, our schools, centre for policy alternatives, 24(4), 131-145.
  • Langford R., Hewes, J., Hooper, S., & Lysack, M. (Eds.). (2015). Professionalism in ECE [Special issue] Canadian Children, 20(1).
  • Langford R., & Di Santo, A. (Eds.). (2013). Leading the way: Recognizing the role of early learning lab schools in Canadian universities and colleges. School of Early Childhood Studies, Ryerson University, Toronto.
  • George L. Geis Dissertation Award for the most outstanding Canadian doctoral dissertation focusing on higher education, 2005.
  • Crystal Apple Award for teaching excellence, George Brown College, 2005.