A supportive environment is critical for individuals to protect their developmentally bio-psycho-socio-emotional health. This research was carried out to determine the possible causes of "desire for rapid growth", which is frequently seen in childhood, and the emotional states caused by "desire for rapid growth" in children,…

This article examines how state prekindergarten (PreK) leaders in the United States believe their gender, race, and the status of the field influenced their work experiences. Qualitative methods were used to collect data from 10 state PreK leaders through two semistructured interviews. Leaders worked in different states and the majority identified…

Child care and early education (CCEE) are essential resources for families and children across the country. Yet qualified educators are choosing to leave their positions, and young professionals are choosing not to enter the field. This instability has been a long-lasting issue and is thought to be driven largely by structural and systemic forces…

The Early Childhood Commission (ECC) is an agency of the Ministry of Education and Youth in Jamaica responsible for early childhood development. It has been proposed that Early Childhood Practitioners (ECPs) should engage in more child friendly and age-appropriate teaching practices. This is especially critical as they use the Jamaica Early…

This research analyses childhood career development learning through a qualitative career assessment. To help children to make meaning of the career influences, culturally sensitive procedures were used. A case-study design has been carried out, using techniques such as mapping, family portrait, role-playing and self-portrait to unveil the process…

Background/Context: Over the past five decades, policymakers have introduced Public-Private Partnership (PPP) programs in education as a reform in the presence of "government failure," aiming to increase the freedom of school choice, educational productive efficiency, and social equity. While the evidence regarding charters in US is…

Early childhood (EC) teacher turnover is a chronic issue for the field that affects children, teachers, and programs; yet some teachers choose to remain in the profession. We interviewed EC teachers with the goal of identifying salient motivators and challenges to teaching in their EC workplace and the field generally. Teachers reported parts of…

Behavioral interventions delivered in preschools can help young children who need support for their behavior. However, preschool teachers face barriers to implementing behavioral interventions, leading to a research-to-practice gap. To better understand how to support preschool teachers, we conducted a scoping review of determinants (i.e.,…

Education reform in early childhood education in China has often adopted western theories and pedagogies in efforts to facilitate educational change. The theory of multiple intelligences (MI) is an example of one adopted. This paper reports on a study that examined factors that influence Chinese kindergarten teachers' use of MI theory in their…

Kindergarten Entry Assessments (KEAs) have grown in popularity over the past decade due to the Race to the Top -- Early Learning Challenge Grant offered by the U.S. Department of Education in 2015. This study addresses kindergarten teachers' perceptions of data from North Carolina's school readiness assessment and their perceptions of what…

Over the past three years, there have been changes in learning observed due to COVID-19 pandemic-related disruptions that affected young learners who needed support during instruction, raising concerns about their learning progress. As such, this qualitative phenomenological study explored and described the parent and teacher perspectives on the…

This study explores the implementation of the engage2Learn program among English as a Second Language (ESL) educators in the Providence Public School District and its impact on student outcomes over three years (2021-2023). Utilizing Grade 1-5 WIDA ACCESS scores, this study examines cohort differences in change in student proficiency levels before…

A focus on early literacy that became heightened in the early 21st century has had the unintended consequence of restricting our ideas about what children should be doing in classrooms, creating a preoccupation not only with literacy in general but also with a specific subset of early literacy skills that often reflect Eurocentric cultural norms…

The psychological literature on the development of gestures during the first year of life has been limited. It has mainly focused on the development of pointing at around 11 months of age, considering it "the" gesture that allows triadic interactions. However, recent studies have argued for the importance of earlier ostensive gestures…

Research Findings: This study proposes and tests hypotheses regarding the factors in public early-childhood education (ECE) policy that may explain local universal pre-kindergarten (UPK) policies. By analyzing district-level longitudinal data from the Wisconsin State Department and United States (U.S.) Census over two decades, the study examines…