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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:
- Langford, R. (2020). Navigating reconceptualist and feminist ethics of care scholarship to find a conceptual space for rethinking children’s needs in early childhood education. Journal of Childhood Studies, 20-34. https://doi.org/10.18357/jcs00019308 (opens in new window)
- Powell, A., Langford, R., Albanese, P., Prentice, S., & Bezanson, K. (2020). Who cares for carers? How discursive constructions of care work marginalized early childhood educators in Ontario’s 2018 provincial election. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 21(2), 153-164. https://doi.org/10.1177/1463949120928433 (opens in new window)
- Langford, R. & Richardson, B. (2020). Ethics of care in practice: An observational study of interactions and power relations between children and educators in urban Ontario early childhood settings. Journal of Childhood Studies, 33-47. https://doi.org/10.18357/jcs00019398 (opens in new window)
- Langford, R., Powell, A., & Bezanson, K. (2020). Imagining a caring early childhood education and care system in Canada: a thought experiment. International Journal of Care and Caring, 4(1), 109–115. https://doi.org/10.133/239788219x15682724987840 (external link, opens in new window)
- Langford, R., Richardson, B., Albanese, P., Bezanson, K., Prentice, S., & White, J. (2017). Caring about care: Reasserting care as integral to early childhood education and care practice, politics and policies in Canada. Global Studies of Childhood, 7(4), 311-322. https://doi.org/10.1177/2043610617747978 (opens in new window)
- Langford, R., Di Santo, A., Valeo, A., Underwood, K., & Lenis, A. (2016). The innovation of Ontario full-day kindergarten educator teams: Have they reproduced the split systems of care and education? Gender and Education, 30(5), 569-586. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2016.1258456 (opens in new window)
- Langford, R., Prentice, S., Richardson, B., & Albanese, P. (2016). Conflictual and cooperative childcare politics in Canada. International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40723-016-0017-3 (opens in new window)
- Richardson, B., & Langford, R. (2014). A shifting collective identity: A critical discourse analysis of the child care advocacy association of Canada’s public messaging in 2005 and 2008. Critical Discourse Studies, 12(1), 78-96. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2014.962068 (opens in new window)
- Langford, R., Prentice, S., Albanese, P., Summers, B., Messina-Goertzen, B., & Richardson, B. (2013). Professionalization as an advocacy strategy: A content analysis of Canadian child care social movement organizations’ 2008 discursive resources. Early Years: An International Research Journal, 33(3), 302-317. https://doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2013.789489 (opens in new window)
- Langford, R. (2010). Theorizing an early childhood educator’s authority for the advancement of social goods. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 56(3), 291-303
- Langford, R. (2010). Critiquing child-centred pedagogy to bring children and early childhood educators into the centre of a democratic pedagogy. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 11(1), 113-127. https://doi.org/10.2304/ciec.2010.11.1.113 (opens in new window)
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.