In this article I discuss contemporary tensions between policy, research and practice within Danish early childhood education and care. I present a critical, but open-ended, pastiche narrative with elements of modernization, evidence-based practice and (post-) positivistic research. I draw on postmodern and post-pragmatist sources to construct this pastiche in order to focus on discourse, power and contextualized meaning. I do not keep politics out of my research (Denzin 2006, 421)--I write with political intent (Mac Naughton 2005)!