In this study, we compared how sustainability, children's agency, and play are addressed in preschool curricula in Sweden and Turkey. Content analysis was used to analyse, interpret, and compare the content. The findings indicated that sustainability is explicitly integrated into the Swedish curriculum but only partly mentioned in the Turkish…

This phenomenological study aimed to develop a framework integrating play into preschool curriculum based on educators' lived experiences using play-based methods. Fifteen educators from 12 centers were interviewed using theoretical sampling. Data analysis revealed nine pathways linking play types, educator roles, and learning objectives. Results…

The development of social and emotional learning in children can directly impact overall learning, emotional skills, and socialization of young children (The Urban Child Institute, 2024). Equal emphasis on social and emotional learning should mirror the importance and impact of academic learning. A philosophy of integrated social and emotional…

This theoretical article examines the crucial role of play-based learning (PBL) in enhancing the mathematical skills of children in the Early Childhood Phase, referred to as Foundation Phase (Grade R-3) learners, within a South African context. The article argues that the traditional approach to teaching early childhood mathematics, where teachers…

Playgroups are a unique form of early childhood provision involving parents and their children attending together. Parents' attendance at playgroups provides opportunities for involvement in play. However, little is known about parents' practices of co-play in playgroups and the potential for these practices to enhance children's play experiences…

Government guidelines are demanding greater educational outcomes and intentional teaching in Australian preschools. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a study of how children incorporate concepts into child-initiated play. A cohort of 18 children (aged 3.0-5.8, mean age of 4.8) were digitally observed over seven weeks…

Parents of young children are often unaware of the general importance of play in children's development and their own roles in children's play. Lack of leisure, lack of space, the COVID-19 pandemic, Early Childhood Centre teacher communication and use of media and digital toys for children, have affected and reduced children's free play. Drawing…

The forest school approach to nature learning has gathered momentum in the UK and across parts of Europe including Scandinavia for well over 50 years. In other contexts that include Canada, China, New Zealand and Australia, nature-based early childhood education and care settings, influenced by European forest school approaches, are in a rapid…

In this paper, authors reflect on the implications of the report titled "Bold Beginnings: The Reception Curriculum in a Sample of Good and Outstanding Primary Schools" (Ofsted, 2017). This report is a review of curriculum for four-and five-year-old children in the United Kingdom. The "Bold Beginnings" report argues for teaching…

Structured and teacher-directed play focused on children's academic outcomes has proven problematic in Indonesian early childhood education. This contrasts with the PlayWorlds model, which emphasises both the primary activity of play and conceptual learning. However, there has been little research in Indonesia on the pedagogical aspects of the…

This article recounts the changes that occurred when a research study was redesigned to become more participatory, involving children, teachers, families, and the wider symbolic cultural neighbourhood. What emerged was a research study that was "integrated" into the curriculum of a four-year-old classroom. Here, the process is…

The study aimed at assessing Problems of Curriculum Relevance in Enhancing Children's Cognitive Development in Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Ethiopia. An explanatory sequential research design was employed through a multistage random sampling technique to collect primary data from the participants (N[subscript i]=260) through questionnaires…

How can we use Friedrich Froebel's play theory in order to analyze ECEC, Early Childhood Education and Care? Wolfgang Klafki builds his theory of categorical "Bildung" on Froebel's play theory, which presupposes the interaction between child, adult and content, as in the didactic triangle. Froebel's play theory was lost in the hands of…

Building on the idea that the culture of an organisation has an extremely deep influence on the personalities, minds and identities of people who participate in it (Hofstede 2015) -- we reflected on how the US and Polish cultures' specific values and beliefs were represented and symbolised in the early childhood settings. We focused our analysis…

Supporting children's schemas in play-based activities and curricula are a valued and embedded part of early childhood practice in many education systems (Meade, A., and P. Cubey. 2008. "Thinking Children, Learning About Schemas." Berkshire: Open University; Nutbrown, C. 2011. "Threads of Thinking Schemas and Young Children's…