Parents` significance in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is emphasized in the research, but primarily from the perspective of ECEC professionals. Drawing on discursive institutionalism, we analysed what parents of young children in Finland constructed as essential in ECEC from the child`s point of view in their discussions concerning the…

Little research in education has focused on school neighborhoods. We employ a novel systematic social observation tool--the internet-based School Neighborhood Assessment Protocol (iSNAP)--within Google Street View to quantify the physical characteristics of 291 preschool communities in nine U.S. cities. We find low to moderate correlations (r =…

Contributing to recent work in the critical sociology of childhood, this article presents an ethnographic and discursive analysis of the multitude of cultural meanings associated with "child-centeredness" in US American early childhood education. Specifically, the article focuses on Waldorf education, a private educational alternative…

Only three out of five children are enrolled in preschool globally, and only one out of five in low-income countries, yet the expansion of preschool education came to a near standstill in 2020. To restart it, we propose a policy instrument called the Preschool Entitlement. It entails the right of every child to 600 hours of quality…

While the majority of children in Sweden attend preschool, children of immigrant background have lower enrollment rates. Limited research has explored why immigrant families do not attend preschool. This study helps to fill this void by exploring the perspectives of 10 skilled immigrant mothers who do not send their children to preschool. Data…

This paper is part of a wider research project, exploring the possibilities to protect and extend Froebelian principles in practice and analyses interview data from thirty-three early years practitioners to investigate their understanding and enactment of learning through play in relation to the theories of Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852). Analysis…

This study aims to examine the Life Studies Curricula which have been adopted since the proclamation of the Republic in terms of children's rights. The 1936, 1948, 1968, 1998, 2009, 2015, and 2018 curricula were examined for this purpose. The study was designed in accordance with the scanning model. The data was collected and analyzed through…

This multiple case study investigates the involvement of foreign domestic helpers (FDHs) in Hong Kong early childcare. Three middle-class families were chosen; one parent, one FDH, one teacher, and one preschool child within each family were interviewed. A grounded theory analysis approach was adopted to examine the interviews. Analyses revealed…

This paper responds to suggestions that the concept of 'child voice' is under-interrogated in academic and grey literatures. It presents findings from data generated with seven mothers in a small-scale qualitative study about young children's well-being in a low-income area in England. The findings suggest a re-conceptualisation of young children…

The seven papers in this issue address a variety of challenges that parents in several different cultural places encounter as they do their best to ensure their children's safe, happy, and successful development from infancy through middle childhood: infant sleep, developmental agendas, temperament, preschools, academic success, and learning to be…

Educational research confirms that early childhood education can impact positively on the lives, well-being, safety, growth, development and academic performance of young children in the birth to 4 years age group. In South Africa (SA), Early Childhood Development (ECD) has been recognised and identified as a critical nodal point for the country's…

This paper presents the findings of a study investigating School-Age Educare (SAE) teachers' conceptions of care and care practices and how these conceptions of care and actual practices relate to pupils' needs. The study is based on observations and interviews with two experienced SAE teachers and one young teacher in a Swedish SAE centre,…

All Australian children and their families have an equal right to access quality early years education. To achieve this, rationalisation of the Australian early childhood (EC) sector in 2007 saw the introduction of mandated governing frameworks, including the National Quality Framework (NQF), designed to regulate and assure quality practices…

This article draws on a small survey of Auckland-area early childhood services to explore "tree climbing as curriculum". As well as considering how health and safety issues are understood and managed, it also considers the role/s of early childhood teachers during children's tree climbing, alongside the relevance of folk wisdom about…

Scientific and policy advances are putting early childhood development (ECD) at the center of efforts to improve human development. This study was undertaken to understand what knowledge and attitudinal barriers exist that 25 hinder the full-scale roll-out of services for the youngest children and their families. We used anthropological methods…