Fröbel's pedagogy of Kindergarten and play : modifications in Germany and the United States / Helge Wasmuth

Includes bibliographical references and index

Part I: Friedrich Fröbel and his pedagogy of kindergarten and play -- Friedrich Fröbel on his way of becoming an educator of young children -- The invention of kindergarten -- The challenge of finding the "authentic" Fröbel and translating his work -- Fröbel's worldview and his pedagogy of kindergarten and play -- Part II: The Fröbelianer and their modification of Fröbel's pedagogy of kindergarten and play -- The organizational development of the Fröbel movement -- The evolution of Fröbel's pedagogy of kindergarten and play -- Part III: How kindergarten came to the United States -- The kindergarten movement in the US and the openness to Fröbel -- The transfer of Fröbel's pedagogy of kindergarten and play to the US -- Conclusion : the history of Fröbel's pedagogy of kindergarten and play and its modification.

"This text provides a comprehensive analysis of historical archives, letters, and primary sources to offer unique insight into how Fröbel's pedagogy of kindergarten and play has been understood, interpreted, and modified throughout history and in particular, as a consequence of it's adoption in the US. Tracing the development, modification, and global spread of the kindergarten movement, this volume demonstrates the far-reaching impacts of Fröbel's work, and asks how far contemporary understandings of the kindergarten pedagogy reflect the educationalist's original intentions. Recognizing that Fröbel's pedagogy has at times been simplified or misunderstood, the book tackles issues caused by translation, or transfer to non-German speaking countries such as the US, and so demonstrates how and why contemporary research and Froebelian practice is in the danger of diverging from the original ideas expressed in Fröbel's work. By returning to original documents produced by Fröbel, Wasmuth traces various interpretations, and explains how and why some of these understandings established themselves in the context of US Early Childhood Education, whilst others did not. This insightful text will be of great interest to graduate and postgraduate students, researchers, academics, professionals and policy makers in the fields of early childhood education, history of education, Philosophy of Education and Teacher Education"--