Book Review Letting the Outside In: developing teaching and learning beyond the early years classroom

This edited book challenges practitioners to ‘let the outside in’. In this instance, ‘outside ’ is an analogy for the real world beyond the classroom and the confines of the school building. It opens with a quote from Dewey (1929), ‘The school must represent present life’, and then explores what that ‘present life ’ might be like eighty years after Dewey put pen to paper. Written for early years teachers in England, it contains practical ways in which real life experiences can be included within the curriculum for children in the early school years. Each of the chapters develops the theme further, looking at all aspects of the ‘beyond’, from physical movement to sustainable environments, popular culture, family involvement and outdoor environments, all written from a British perspective. Such debates are familiar to us in Australia (see MacNaughton & Williams, 2004; Fleet et al, 2006; Elliott, 2007). In reading this book I was reminded of how steeped we are in our own educational context and teaching culture as I noted how many references were made to literacy and numeracy curricula in the text, as though they were needed to justify looking ‘beyond’. I wondered if this was a particularly British slant, but on reflection I imagine it would be foregrounded in texts for the formal years schooling in Australia too. Throughout the book I was often uncertain of the age group or the educational setting tha