The research presented in this article scrutinises how baby room leaders construct babyhood and how this impacts their practice. Our research feeds into a growing body of research that challenges the dominant developmentalist paradigm in early childhood education and care (ECEC) and instead highlights possibilities for self-determination, agency…

This article examines how the policy of funded early years places for 'disadvantaged' 2-year-olds (FNP) in England reconfigures spaces within early childhood and care (ECEC) in new ways of working with young children. Using practitioners' interview data from early years settings in London, this article uses Foucauldian technologies of…

Informal caregivers (family, friends, and neighbors) spend many hours each week with the children in their care and can have a significant impact on the children's social-emotional and academic development. Unfortunately, many informal caregivers lack the knowledge of how to do so. We conducted a qualitative 2-year study to investigate informal…

This article examines how an educator develops a drama pedagogy through the course of her dramatic interactions with three toddlers. A cultural-historical approach was used to explore the concepts of dramatic interactions and dimensions of drama pedagogy. Visual research methodology involved video observations and a reflective interview with the…

This article reports an aspect of a life historical study which investigated the part that "love" played in mothers' decision-making about returning to work and placing their babies in day care. The article begins with a brief discussion of the context, including 21st-century policies in England to encourage mothers to return to the…

There is growing interest in the study of young children's "everyday" lives. Music engagement is central to young children's experience of the "everyday" yet few studies have investigated the ways young children and their families engage with and use music in their daily lives. The purpose of this article is twofold: it interrogates the ways in…

In this qualitative study, the relationship development process of three infant-caregiver dyads in a university-affiliated childcare setting was explored and some contributing factors to the development were identified. Data were collected through multiple methods (observations, video recordings, interviews, documents) for a semester. The findings…

Communities in the UK are seeing a sustained shift in the balance of care of babies and the youngest children from families to nurseries, with a particular emphasis being placed on early learning. Yet a basic question of whether nurseries should be modelled on the intimacy and spontaneity of family interactions or the more professional and planned…

Worldwide, there is concern about the effect of non-parental childcare on children's development although research has shown that good quality alternative childcare during infancy can have a positive effect on children's development. This article reports a study of the use of housemaids instead of qualified caregivers in the Arabian Gulf. Using…