Book review: Slow knowledge and the unhurried child: Time for slow pedagogies in early childhood education, by Alison Clark

There was a certain serendipity in my being asked to review this book; I had no foresight of just how loudly this would speak to my own values concerning education.I ordered an inspection copy, which (as is sadly the case these days) came as an electronic version, but as soon as I started reading, and all my most revered educational theorists began to appear -Biesta, Malaguzzi, Ball, Foucault -I decided that I needed to own a paper copy.It was money well spent.I love this book.It should be noted at the outset that both time and values are tricky, ethereal concepts.Clark's discussions concerning our harried teaching environment and the pressures of performativity are enthralling, but her attempts to translate these into more concrete actions are somewhat less convincing.These are big ideas, big issues and big truths, so to then align them with something as physical as pedagogical documentation is a challenge that verges on the impossible.These latter sections are a little weaker, but in no way detract from the overall value of this book.