International Critical Childhood Policy Studies Journal Special Issue
Early Years Policy and Activism: Optimism in Im/possible Times

Editors: Mark Nagasawa, Brooke Richardson, and Kate MacCrimmon

We define both policy and activism broadly. Policy refers to “rules that tell people what to do” (Nagasawa et al., 2023, p. 1). This expansive definition applies to official, macro or big P policies like laws, regulations, and court rulings, but it also includes more micro, small p policies like organizational rules, both official and implicit, that guide schools, ECE programs, administrative agencies, and coalitions. Further, this definition includes how policies operate as (cultural) systems—and how people navigate them (Ball, 2015; Bartlett & Vavrus, 2014; Macdonald & Richardson, 2015). Therefore, we envision this issue focusing more on stories of engaged scholarship and activism than on descriptive policy analyses. 

Activism is a frequently used but rarely defined word. Similar to how we define policies, our view on activism is inclusive: working for justice in/as relationship (Brown, 2017). This can range from public, collective action for systems transformations to joining with families advocating for deeply accessible childcare to struggles within an ECE center to enact (post)humanizing pedagogy.   

Topics may include but are not limited to:

● Historical or contemporary illustrations of community organizing, coalition-building, or other collective activism in ECE, particularly examples led by subjugated or displaced people 

● Macro-policy advocacy (trans/national, regional, provincial-state, or municipal) in legislative, administrative, or judicial settings, including insider (within systems) and outsider (more classic activism)—examples that bridge outsider-insider strategies are particularly welcome 

● Micro-policy advocacy in classrooms, pre/schools, centers, agencies, colleges, districts, or ministries-departments), such as creative resistance to curricular and assessment mandates or to censorial pressures in higher education—particularly when contextualized within macro-systems

● Meso-advocacy (systems navigation), for instance richly described illustrations of popular education approaches

Reflecting our commitment to keeping theoretical work firmly rooted in children’s, families’, and educators’ material conditions, we welcome submissions via two different streams: 1) traditional academic, scholarly contributions and 2) creative means, such as poetry, video, photography, other visual arts, and so forth. These are not mutually exclusive categories.

For more information or if you would like to discuss ideas, please contact the guest editors: Brooke Richardson, Brooke.Richardson1@msvu.ca; Kate MacCrimmon, kate.maccrimmon@gmail.com; and Mark Nagasawa, mnagasawa@bankstreet.edu.

Please submit 350 word abstracts, with a title and all contributors’ contact information directly to the guest editors.

Timeline 

●      Title, 350 word abstract, and contact information: October 7, 2025

●      Invitation to submit: October 31, 2025

●      Full Submission*: Jan 15, 2026

●      Determinations and feedback from special issue editors sent: April 1, 2026

●      Revisions due to special issue editors: May 15, 2026

●      Final revisions due to journal from special editors: September 1, 2026

●      Anticipated publication: November 1, 2026

* Timelines for creative works might need to be negotiated with creators, depending upon the nature of the work. However, the overall timeline is firm.

Guidelines for More Traditional Academic Works

Academic pieces can range from 3,000 to 5,000 words, double spaced, and formatted in APA 7th edition style. Papers lacking APA formatting will not be reviewed. Only unpublished pieces that are not under review by other publications are eligible for consideration.

Guidelines for More Creative Works

We also welcome submissions from children and young people, teachers, center/school leaders, public agency administrators, and others. We are also interested in short films, brief podcasts, photo essays, and small-scale artistic products.

Images

● Minimum width of 537px

● A minimum resolution of 72dpi

● Should be referenced in the text, number and title of the image; location) and and uploaded separately as a .jpg file 

Videos

● Upload videos to YouTube. Make public. Insert video title and URL link into text

● Do not embed videos directly into text

● To ensure accessibility, any videos must include closed captioning at the time of publication. Closed captioning is the responsibility of the author. Instructions for how to close caption YouTube videos can be found here. While you can use the auto-caption function, it is your responsibility to do a final edit of the caption file, as described in the provided link, to ensure accuracy.

Audio

●  Please upload audio files to SoundCloud and then share the URL

References

Ball, S. J. (2015): What is policy? 21 years later: reflections on the possibilities of policy research, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, DOI: 10.1080/01596306.2015.1015279

Bartlett, L., & Vavrus, F. (2014). Transversing the vertical case study: A methodological approach to studies of educational policy as practice. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 45(2), 131-147.

Brown, A. M. (2017). Emergent strategy: Shaping change, changing worlds. AK Press.

MacDonald, L. & Richardson, B. (2015). ECEs as childcare advocates: Examining the scope of advocacy carried out by ECEs from the perspective of childcare movement actors in Ontario and Manitoba. Canadian Children, 40(1), 100-110. https://childcarecanada.org/sites/default/files/Canadian%20Children%20Macdonald_et%20al.FINAL_.pdf

Nagasawa, M. K., Peters, L., Bloch, M. N., & Swadener, B. B. (Eds.). (2023). Transforming early years policy in the US: A call to action. Teachers College Press.