Background: A safe and inclusive indoor learning environment reflects different ways of knowing, actuality and thinking. In the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) context, indoor learning areas influence the exploration of teaching and learning activities. Aim: This article explored rural ECCE teachers' experiences of creating indoor…

This qualitative explorative case study aims to investigate Norwegian early childhood education and care directors' and deputy directors' enactments of distributed pedagogical leadership to get a deeper understanding of the relational dynamics between them. In order to achieve the aim, an interpretative approach was used to collect data from…

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…

Demand for child care in the United States outpaces supply. Understanding access issues is critical for addressing them and supporting children, families, and the economy. However, the most widely available proxy for child care supply--authorized capacity--likely overestimates care availability. Authorized capacity represents the maximum children…

Infants, toddlers, and two-year-olds with disabilities or developmental delays often participate in center-based childcare. Just like other care and education settings, childcare for very young children should provide high-quality inclusion. To date, minimal research has been conducted on practitioner perspectives about inclusion in childcare for…

The 'schoolification' of early childhood education and care programs, seen as readying children for formalised schooling, has had an impact on the education of younger and younger age groups. While the focus of past research has mainly focused on 4-5-year-old children, this study shifts the focus to 2-3-year-old children and the literacy focus of…

This paper discusses the challenges facing a national evaluation of an early years intervention programme, Sure Start Children's Centres (SSCCs), that was implemented across England in the first decade of the 21st century. The paper describes the rationale for the evaluation's mixed methods research design and the ecological theoretical approach…

Leadership is of paramount importance to any organization, as leaders can set the tone for the organization's employees. The path to leadership in childcare can be markedly different from other professions, as there is no qualifying criteria; however, previous research has identified that for leaders to be effective they must possess skills,…

Research has consistently established the positive impact of sharing books with young children. Evidence suggests several important factors when evaluating book sharing with young children, including the quality of educator practice = and the nature of groupings, as well as the frequency and duration of book sharing sessions and access to books.…

In 2021, the DC Council established the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund ("Pay Equity Fund") to improve compensation for early educators in licensed child development centers and homes. The fund leverages a tax on individuals earning more than $250,000 a year to sustainably fund supplemental payments to early educators in efforts…

The Babysong Project arose out of the Baby Room Project and its aims included supporting baby room practitioners to develop 'communicative musicality' (Malloch & Trevarthen 2009), extending research knowledge about baby room practices and helping practitioners to explore opportunities to question and adapt their own ways of working with babies…

Research Findings: Although it is well documented that toy play and book sharing shape communication between adults and children in different ways, relatively few studies have compared teacher-child interactions in the two activities. The aim of this observational study was to describe and compare the conversational functions of teachers' and…

In March 2020, when public health stay home orders began in order to halt the spread of COVID-19, child care as an industry was drastically and abruptly impacted. This public health emergency highlighted the weaknesses in the child care system in the United States. This study investigated the changes in operations cost, child enrollment and…

In recent years, limited research attention has been directed to what happens in science education before the age of 3 years. We present the findings of a study that followed 13 infant-toddlers aged 0.1-2.2 years (mean 1.8 years) and their educators from a childcare centre. Under the conditions of an educational experiment, the results of our…

Family engagement in childcare is important to ensure the optimal growth, development, and safety of children. Previous research has explored family engagement practices, but limited research is available on the application of theory to explain the uptake of family engagement principles. The purpose of this study was to explore the use and…