This colloquium discusses the intersection of love, care, and education in the field of early childhood education and care. While the name of the field reflects the belief that both care and education are seen as legitimate elements of the field's professional discourse, love is still unspoken, undefined, and taken for granted. The author argues…

This study followed three preservice student teachers as they navigated a semester-long infant-toddler practicum designed to enact a relationship-based approach to teaching and learning. Selected participants were in particular and contrasting placement settings, which served as a catalyst for engaging in critical reflection in multiple ways.…

Learn how to create and nurture communities of care for diverse children, families, and practitioners through responsive practice. In this text, the social and emotional worlds of babies and toddlers, their peers, and their caregivers come to life in the everyday moments of infant-toddler care and education. The authors show infants and toddlers…

Using a grounded theory approach, this study explores the ways a diverse group of pre-service student caregivers, new to teaching and caring for infants, come to understand notions of 'love' during an infant practicum course in the United States. Through analysing weekly dialogue journals and course assignments produced by each of the 8…

The recent novel coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis has affected humanity and education worldwide as continued learning amidst massive school closures required the unprecedented decision to make a rapid transition from in-person learning to remote online learning. This abrupt and temporary shift to remote online learning due to crisis circumstances was…

This single case study was undertaken to explore how an infant head teacher meets the needs of the infants, who express their desire to be cared for, in their caring encounters. Natural daily interactions between infants and the teacher were observed for approximately 10 weeks. Through the qualitative data analysis, the results of this study…