This doctoral study examined the function of baby massage in supporting early infant-carer attachment relationships among families facing stressful life experiences. It was designed in response to Bennett, Underdown and Barlow's [Bennett, C., A. Underdown, and J. Barlow. 2013. "Massage for Promoting Mental and Physical Health in Typically…

In Flanders, we are searching to implement inclusion in our educational systems, knowing that we have a strong focus on segregation and specialisation. Parents are often missing in the debate, while they are confronted with experiences of exclusion and discrimination. Our aim was to hear the parents' voices on high-quality childcare for children…

Given the substantial increase in children attending center-based childcare over the past decades, the consequences of center-based childcare for children's development have gained more attention in developmental research. However, the relation between center-based childcare and children's neurocognitive development remains relatively…

This article investigates Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. The focus is on ECEC leaders' perceptions of team leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. The purpose of the study is to increase understanding of the team-related challenges ECEC leaders have been confronted with, how they have…

There is increasing pressure on Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) settings to align their practices and values to that of schools, with the notion that a quality education in ECEC consists of providing care whilst also ensuring strong learning outcomes. This paper employs the constructs of structural and process quality to theorise the…

This study aimed to determine the effects of the Active Early Learning (AEL) childcare center-based physical activity intervention on early childhood executive function and expressive vocabulary via a randomized controlled trial. Three-hundred-and-fourteen preschool children (134 girls) aged 3-5 years from 15 childcare centers were randomly…

Parents play a vital role in identifying children's needs for support and Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) features that support children's well-being. This study examined parental perspectives on features of ECEC that foster young children's well-being under and above the age of 3 years by interviewing 359 parents across nine European…

Within the context of the European Education Area (EEA) strategic framework, the working group on early childhood education and care (ECEC WG) supports EU members states to implement the European Quality Framework for ECEC, which is a key part of the 2019 Council Recommendation on High-Quality ECEC Systems. Throughout 2022-2023, the ECEC WG has…

This paper reports a small-scale qualitative inquiry in the discipline of Early Childhood Studies in Higher Education that explores how playfulness in pedagogy might create an environment in which people within the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) sector (including students) engage in dialogue about structural injustice. Participants in…

The socio-emotional experiences of infants during transitions to early childhood education and care (ECEC) and across their first year in these out-of-home contexts are not well known. In an international project across five countries (New Zealand, Finland, Australia, Scotland and the United States), observational data, video of key moments, plus…

This quantitative study examines the connection between the years that children spent in early childhood education and care (ECEC) and their social orientations and main objects of attention. The data were collected within the Progressive Feedback project by observing children: 20,457 observations of 972 six-year-olds from 360 child groups in…

Research Findings: Measuring toddlers' cortisol levels both in childcare and at home and their relation to child- and childcare-related factors may help to identify stress-inducing childcare practices and children who are more vulnerable to stress in childcare. Accordingly, toddlers' (n = 320, 51.2% female, mean age = 26.8 months) cortisol levels…

Young children engage with digital technologies from a very young age. Often this is considered detrimental to their social development as it is seen as a socially isolating experience. This paper presents the findings of an Australian Research Council funded research project that focused on what characterises infants and toddlers peer-to-peer…

Due to their pivotal role in developing quality teachers, student teacher placements have been considered a cornerstone of initial teacher education (ITE). International preservice teachers in Australia must simultaneously make sense of the local culture, adjust to new pedagogical practices at university, and negotiate the complex regulatory and…

This article examines how public welfare institutions in Denmark are reconfigured into knowledge factories. Since the 1990s, Denmark has sought to export "welfare" solutions as a way of extracting knowledge on social practices already happening in institutions of the welfare state for economic purposes. Through a case study of…