Using a post-structuralist framework, this article seeks to analyse the ways in which English early years curriculum policy has led to different constructions of young children. Although policy is often presented as being logical and factual, policy making can also be seen as a value-laden process in which meanings are socially constructed and…

Advocating for a child's rights and needs is an experience shared by most families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This qualitative study is an in-depth secondary content analysis of the discourse of 13 immigrant families on their advocacy experience during the early childhood period. Results revealed that, from very early on,…

Early childhood curricula are constructed from what is deemed important for young children's development and learning nationally, while influenced by international policy developments. Following concerns surrounding international neo-liberal agendas in early childhood policy formation, this article examines the position of young children's…

The study examines the views of children and educators with regards to belonging in one diverse preschool setting in Iceland. It builds on the ideology of the politics of belonging, referring to children's relationships in the community of preschool, children's participation, and the process of inclusion and exclusion among the children. This…

This article unpacks ECE professional associations and unions (ECEPAUs) pathways of resistance to a 'Universal Nursery Policy Project' (UNPP) and how ECEPAUs have reconceptualized the professionalism of the nursery within the Chilean neoliberal agenda. Drawing on a post-qualitative methodology, with three datasets of participant observations,…

This article describes developments in Uruguay in early childhood provision since 2008 and in particular the organization of the curriculum framework for childcare and education from birth to age six. By means of the creation of an interinstitutional body mainly responsible for promoting high-quality education in early childhood and the…

The psychologist's work in education is a field permanently under construction, crossed by multiple tensions. Some tensions are macrosocial, where the design of educational policy obliges us to study the impacts that policy produces in the microspaces of power and professional practice. Uruguay's education law, enacted in 2008, clearly adopts a…

Using interview data, this paper explores issues which head teachers and teachers in a sample of Saudi kindergartens in Makkah face in implementing an adapted curriculum and pedagogy which appear to conflict with the local culture. The Saudi Self-Learning Curriculum for Kindergarten has been developed from Western models of child-centered…

This article aims to discuss the quality of early childhood education and care in Brazil and the process of infants' and toddlers' "Inserimento" to daycare. The theoretical framework of our arguments is based on the notion of quality of child education as a negotiated concept, and by the Italian concept of "Inserimento." The…

The article focuses on selected educational developments in early twentieth century Poland. It begins with an overview of the changes in the organisation of education and care for young children during the pre-independence and interwar periods. The authors discuss social and political challenges as reflected in educational realities as well as…

The conceptions early childhood educators (ECEs) hold about infants can guide their pedagogical practices in ways that can enable and constrain infants' experiences. Literature regarding infants' development and the role of adults in infant learning theoretically positions infants as both being capable of independent learning, and needing adult…

It has been seven years since the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) was introduced in Australia and four years since the National Quality Standard (NQS) was implemented. To gain insight into how educators are understanding practice in the Australian early childhood and care context, the study draws on a praxeological frame where educators have…

The decade 1997 to 2007 was a dramatic one for Ireland. Driven by a strong economy it had low rates of unemployment and attracted a large population of immigrant workers. These changes impacted directly on family life--most particularly in the area of the education and care of young children. The recent and equally dramatic change in economic…

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child has during recent decades influenced professionals and policy-makers in Norway as well as in other countries, resulting in changes in documents regulating early childhood institutions. Little is known, however, about the way this right is understood and realized in everyday practice. How is the concept…