Helge Wasmuth is an Associate Professor in the Department of Childhood Education. Prior to his position at Mercy College, he worked for many years in the training of kindergarten teachers in Germany or Switzerland, respectively. He joined Mercy College in 2011 and was the winner of Mercy College’s Faculty Innovation Award in 2017.
Dr. Wasmuth’s scholarly research interests include the history and philosophy of early childhood education and care (ECEC), ECEC policy, and innovative teaching methods in online learning. As an advocate for age-appropriate ECEC and play as a means of learning, he has been interviewed by UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning and commented on World Bank’s 2018 World Development Report on Education. He is a renowned expert on Friedrich Fröbel and the history of kindergarten and has been interviewed for a documentary about the history of kindergarten. Furthermore, he presented on this topic at national and international conferences. His current book Fröbel’s Pedagogy of Kindergarten and Play: Modifications in Germany and the United States will be published in Spring 2020.
Dr. Wasmuth is a founding member of Cultures of Early Childhood Education (CECEC), an international research network. The network has recently published Globalization, Transformation, and Cultures in Early Childhood Education and Care–Reconceptualization and Comparison.
His current research projects include (un)intended consequences and hidden agendas in current ECEC policies, using avatars in online learning as a means of critically analyzing taken-for-granted assumptions, and the history of kindergarten pedagogy in Germany and the United States.
