Increasingly concerns are expressed about the formalisation of early childhood education and the loss of opportunities for children's play in a range of European and European heritage countries. This paper takes up this challenge by discussing, from a cultural-historical perspective, the relations between play and learning in pre-school settings.…

Research has suggested that system-wide professional development needs to embrace ongoing and sustainable processes such as critical reflection, being within a community of practice and the co-creation of new practices within and across early childhood systems. However, there is little research on how professional development can be designed in a…