Play is well documented as a purposeful, authentic way for children to engage in literacy practices. Although the benefits of play are widely agreed upon, there is some debate regarding its place in school. In fact, play is often marginalized in place of "back to the basics" language instruction. For kindergartners, this means word…

A recommendation from the Social Work Task Force was that all employers of social workers should conduct a regular "health check" of the social work profession to learn from practice as part of a continuous cycle of improvement. This article documents how the London Borough of Tower Hamlets has gone about this. I describe the…

This article documents what happened in a first grade classroom when young Latina/o children of immigrants had consistent classroom-based opportunities to use their agency in their learning. Applying theoretical constructs from development economics to data from the Agency and Young Children ethnographic project, we explore three forms of agency…

This sociolinguistic study explores complexities of supporting preschool emergent bilinguals' communicative competence in multilingual classrooms. These complexities were highlighted in the author's qualitative research of a three-month school-home literacy project in one Head Start classroom. This article investigates what supported the…

The current study aimed to review and evaluate a three-session psychoeducational and psychotherapeutic group programme for parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The group programme was facilitated through an ASD diagnostic and intervention service within a Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Trust over a 12-month period,…

Profiling human beings occurs daily throughout our society, typically grounded in inaccuracies, misperceptions, and biases related to race, faith, sexual orientation, language, family structure, and other factors. This article appropriates discriminatory profiling in conjunction with conceptualization of diversity as a verb to vividly convey the…

Family environment plays a very important role in early child development and the availability of stimulating material in the early years of a child's life is crucial for optimising development. The Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) inventory is one of the most widely used measures to assess the quality and quantity…

This study explores the development of professional identity as a teacher of nature of science (NOS). Our research question was "How can a teacher develop a professional identity as an elementary teacher of NOS?" Through a researcher log, videotaped lessons, and collection of student work, we were able to track efforts in teaching NOS as…

Increasing the participation rates of Pasifika children in early childhood settings is a policy target in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Yet, participation may not engender positive learning outcomes for children from diverse cultural backgrounds without attention to teacher knowledge and practice. The early childhood curriculum document, Te Whariki,…

Anecdotal evidence suggests that grandparents provide a substantial amount of childcare support to parents of infants in Ireland yet there has been little attention to the provision of grandparent childcare at policy level. Using nationally representative data on childcare provision in the Republic of Ireland, this study examined the prevalence of…

The potential human and financial costs of foster placement disruption for the children, families, professionals and agencies involved are widely accepted. This service evaluation identified and described perspectives of foster parents and social workers regarding placement disruptions in order to identify the main issues of concern and to derive…

This article examines the outcomes of care orders from the point of view of social workers. The aim is to cast light on the "black box" of substitute care by analysing the practice-based view on outcome in order to contribute to the complex debate on the relations of care and outcome. The article is based on a study using a survey, focus…

Within United States policymaking, there is widespread recognition that universal preschool works towards a societal good, advancing children's social and academic needs while expanding the economic landscape for a nation. However, in trying to deliver these benefits, all too often educational policies apply a rigid format that overemphasizes…

Children who have a parent in prison are a vulnerable group. Research suggests that such children experience a range of poor outcomes in relation to well-being, education and relationships. These outcomes are mediated by a range of factors including contact with the incarcerated parent. Similarly, prisoners who maintain contact with their families…

Interest in inquiry-based science education (IBSE) often pays little heed to the complex power relations that exist within classrooms. A common obstacle to inquiry is that it strongly diverges from current classroom culture and hence, is outside the sphere of teachers' and students' experiences. Teachers and students bring expectations…