After brief historical and demographic information on Australia's changing societal patterns, this paper discusses some recent research in South Australia related to the expectations of parents and early childhood teachers concerning the purposes of preschooling and early schooling. A questionnaire, designed for both parents and teachers, was sent to a total of 250 parents and 50 early childhood teachers from metropolitan Adelaide. The questionnaire, translated to Italian and Greek so that main ethnic groups as well as English speakers could participate, was divided into three areas: (1) the most important purposes for sending a child to preschool; (2) the most important skills needed by children for functioning effectively when they are adults; and (3) the most important purposes of preschool in relation to the role of parents. (This paper deals only with areas one and two.) It was hypothesized that parents' expectations would differ from those of early childhood teachers, especially in relation to the relative importance of the above purposes. Contrary to this hypothesis it was found that both parents and teachers rated the purpose of social, emotional, and self development as the most important purposes for sending children to preschool, and that ability to care for environment, ability to use mathematical skills, and ability to use leisure time were ranked by both parents and teachers as the least important skills needed by children for the future. Non-English speaking parents, however, placed a higher priority on preparation for school in terms of skill development than did the rest of the sample. (Author/MP)