Theorists and Thought Leaders for Early Childhood Educators
100+Theorists and Thought Leaders for Early Childhood Educators
Theorists and Thought Leaders for Early Childhood Educators: When I sat down to write this resource about early childhood theorists and theories, I didn't anticipate a list of over 80 names, pedagogies and influential people ... Some of these theorists and thought leaders for early childhood educators I had never heard of, which of course led me to research them more. And what should I do with all this deep dive rabbit hole research? Write about it of course!
As of June 21st 2025, this list has grown to well over 100 and now sits at 129! I never anticpated this! So much to research, and so much more to learn.
Initially I was going to write a simple blog article about theories and the Early Years Learning Framework, but once I started creating a list, the more names I found. I couldn't leave any out, because so many of them influenced each other. So who are all these theorists and thought leaders for early childhood education who are shaping the way we teach and learn and think.
Although as someone who is late diagnosed ADHD I should have perhaps expected this. The more I worked on this list, the more I remembered the names that have influenced my thinking and career over the decades, and I of course had to add them to the list and share them with you.
Stay tuned and watch this space! The goal of this blog was to have a list of 100 early childhood theorists and influential people who have changed the landscape of early childhood for Australian children and educators. And it turns out, I far exceed this goal by 29! In time, I will write about, or link to each name which will in turn become a valuable resource for you.
- Lesley Abbott
- Mary Ainsworth
- Anarchy and the EYLF Pirates
- Chris Athey
- Bank Street
- Albert Bandura
- Stephen Bavolek
- Diana Baumrind
- Being, Belonging, Becoming - The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia
- Jay Belsky
- Benjamin Bloom
- John Bowlby
- Pierre Bourdieu
- Urie Brofenbrenner
- T. Berry Brazelton
- Tina Bruce
- Jerome Bruner
- Bush Kinder
- Childspace with Toni and Robin Christie
- Guy Claxton
- John Comenius
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi - Theory of Flow
- Edward de Bono
- Valerie Daniel
- John Dewey
- Margaret Donaldson
- Mary-Jane Drummond
- Judy Dunn
- Carol Dweck
- Rudolk Dreikurs
- 8 Ways of Learning - Aboriginal Pedagogy
- Erik Erikson
- Julie Fisher
- Forest Schools
- Paulo Freire
- Friedrich Froebel
- Sigmund Freud
- Howard Gardner
- Arnold Lucius Gesell
- Daniel Goleman
- Magda Gerber + Tom Forrest
- William Glasser
- G. Stanley Hall
- Martin Hughes
- Susan Isaacs
- High/Scope
- Lilian Katz
- Lawrence Kholberg
- Alfie Kohn
- David Kolb
- Ferre Laevers
- Joy Lubawy
- Wendy Lee + Margaret Carr - Learning Stories
- Martin Luther
- Loris Malaguzzi + Reggio Emilia Approach
- Abraham Maslow
- Margaret McMillan
- Maria Montessori
- Janet Moyles
- Nature Pedagogy
- Vivian Gussin Paley
- Mildred Parten
- Ivan Pavlov
- Jean Piaget
- Steven Pinker
- Emmi Pikler
- Janet Lansbury – RIE parenting and respectful caregiving (influenced by Pikler and Gerber)
- Christopher Phoenix
- Sandi Phoenix
- Dr. Louise Porter
- Carl Rogers
- Carl Jung
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi
- Kenneth H Rubin
- Barbara Rogoff
- Robert Owen
- Burrhus. F. Skinner
- Benjamin Spock
- Waldort Steiner
- Te Whariki: The New Zealand Early Years Curriculum
- Colwyn Trevarthen
- Lev Vygotsky
- Nathan Wallis
- Claire Warden
- Gordon Wells
- John B. Watson
- Margy Whalley
- Dylan Wiliam and Cognitive Load Theory
- Robert Gagné
- David Sobel
- Slow Pedagogy
- The Curiosity Approach
- Bell Hooks
- Noam Chomsky
- Bessel van der Kolk
- Dan Siegel
- Bruce Perry
- Dr. Stuart Shanker
- Eleanor Duckworth
- George Perry Smith
- Anne Meade
- Kathy Walker
- Louise Derman-Sparks
- Deb Curtis
- Margie Carter
- Bev Bos
- Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
- Rita Pierson
- Raewyn Connell
- Tom Hobson (Teacher Tom)
- Lisa Murphy (The Ooey Gooey Lady)
- Tamar Jacobson
- Heather Shumaker
- Susan Linnre
- Sir Ken Robinson
- Brian Cambourne
- Kath Murdoch
- Judy Atkinson
- Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett & Farmer - Authors of Programming and Planning in Early Childhood Settings
- Yumi Stynes
- Ann Pelo
- Arnold Sameroff
- Alison Gopnik
- Eleanor Gibson
- Daniel Stern
- Jean Ayres
- Michael Tomasello
- Esther Thelen
With more Theorists and Thought Leaders for Early Childhood Educators to come!
Homage to Frances Snyder
My great-aunty Frances Snyder was a teacher from the age of 17. She was a nun who lived in Los Angeles and was part of the order Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Three hundred of the 600 nuns, rebelled in the late 1960s. Women shouldn't work for free, and these 600 women were working in 68 elementary schools and 11 high schools, one college and two hospitals. This feminist movement makes me proud, because Aunt Frances and her dearest friend Liz Maloney and 298 other women stood their ground.
These women were influenced by Carl Rogers. And years later Aunt Frances and Liz went to work with William Glasser, travelling the country and working on his theory. So, this article is dedicated to Frances and Liz, and all the amazing women who walked with them, taught them, or were taught by them over the decades of their careers.
