CALL 2027 - 2

1. Introduction

Early childhood science education has increasingly been recognised as a crucial domain for supporting children’s capacity to make sense of the world from the earliest years, not merely as a preparation for later scientific competence. Rather than focusing exclusively on the transmission of isolated content, recent perspectives have emphasised science as a process of “figuring out” phenomena through meaningful engagement with practices, concepts, and language.

This shift has opened important opportunities, but also raised significant theoretical and pedagogical questions. On the one hand, it has contributed to moving beyond transmissive models of teaching; on the other, it has sometimes led to an under-specification of curriculum, content, and instructional guidance. In many early childhood settings, science risks being reduced either to episodic exploratory activities or to loosely defined inquiry experiences, without a clear progression of knowledge and without an explicit integration of concepts and practices.

At the same time, research suggests that children actively construct knowledge through processes that resemble hypothesis generation and testing. This view, consistent with Piaget’s conception of the child as engaged in a form of spontaneous inquiry, highlights the importance of active engagement and sense-making. However, such processes are constrained by developmental and epistemic limitations that must be taken seriously in educational design. Without careful mediation, there is a risk of cognitive overload or of activities that remain at a superficial level of engagement.

From this perspective, early science education should be understood as a complex curricular domain that requires explicit positioning within early childhood frameworks. It involves the intentional selection and organisation of concepts, practices, and language, as well as the design of developmentally appropriate learning trajectories. At the same time, it requires pedagogical approaches capable of integrating exploration, play, and guided instruction, avoiding both rigid forms of content transmission and unstructured discovery.

This special issue aims to contribute to this debate by bringing together research that critically examines the epistemic, curricular, and pedagogical foundations of science education in early childhood.

2. Aim of the Special Issue

This special issue seeks to explore the role of science in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) by inviting contributions that investigate science as a structured and intentional domain of learning.

In particular, the issue aims to:

• examine the place of science within early childhood curricula;

• analyse the relationship between exploration, inquiry, and instructional guidance;

• explore the epistemological foundations of early scientific learning;

• investigate how scientific concepts, practices, and language can be meaningfully introduced from the earliest years;

• contribute to the design of coherent and developmentally appropriate learning trajectories;

• reflect on the role of teachers and professional development in supporting early science education.

3. Suggested Topics

We invite contributions that address science in early childhood education as a structured yet developmentally appropriate domain, exploring the following interconnected dimensions.

3.1 Curriculum, Content and Learning Progression

• Science as a curricular or proto-disciplinary domain in ECEC

• Selection and organisation of scientific concepts, practices, and language

• Design of coherent learning trajectories and progression models

• Spiral curriculum approaches in early science education

• Alignment between early childhood frameworks and formal science curricula

3.2 Scientific Sense-Making and Teaching Approaches

• Science as “figuring out” phenomena through guided engagement

• The role and limits of inquiry-based approaches in early childhood

• Balancing exploration, play, and intentional instruction

• Conceptual play, guided play, and other mediated approaches

• Language as a tool for scientific thinking and meaning-making

3.3 Epistemic and Developmental Constraints

• Cognitive and epistemological limits in early science learning

• Misconceptions, preconceptions, and early conceptual development

• Risks of cognitive overload and poorly structured activities

• The relationship between children’s spontaneous inquiry and structured knowledge

3.4 Teacher Knowledge and Professional Development

• Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in early science education

• Teachers’ role in mediating scientific knowledge and practices

• Design and evaluation of professional development programmes

• Classroom practices and instructional design in ECEC settings

3.5 Inclusion, Culture and Equity in Science Education

• Inclusive approaches to science in early childhood

• Science education in contexts of social and educational disadvantage

• Cultural perspectives and alternative ways of knowing

• Gender, participation, and access to early scientific learning

3.6 Science, Society and Contemporary Challenges

• Science education and sustainability (e.g., environment, climate)

• Early foundations of scientific literacy

• The role of science education in addressing contemporary societal challenges

• Early childhood education and public understanding of science

4. Types of Contributions

We welcome contributions that engage critically with the epistemic, curricular, and pedagogical dimensions of early science education, including:

• Empirical studies (quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods)

• Systematic and scoping reviews

• Theoretical and conceptual analyses

• Design-based and intervention studies

• Policy-oriented contributions

Particular attention will be given to submissions that explicitly address the relationship between:

• sense-making and curriculum

• exploration and instructional guidance

• developmental constraints and disciplinary knowledge

5. Guiding Questions

Authors are invited to engage with the following questions:

• How can science be taught in early childhood as a domain of structured knowledge without reducing it to mere content transmission?

• What balance should be established between children’s active sense-making and curricular intentionality?

• How can scientific concepts and practices be introduced in ways that are both epistemically meaningful and developmentally appropriate?

• What are the limits of inquiry-based approaches in early childhood, and how can they be integrated with guided instruction?

• How can teachers be supported in developing robust pedagogical content knowledge in science?

• How can early science education contribute to equity and inclusion without diluting its disciplinary foundations?