The quality of early childhood education has dominated current debates in the ways educators develop and implement learning programs for children yet conceptions of quality vary contextually and culturally. This qualitative case study explored the insider perspectives of six early childhood educators in Sapporo, Japan regarding their conceptions…

Relational aggression is a subtle form of aggressive behaviour that uses dyadic relationships and manipulation as a vehicle of harm. Little is known about relational aggression in preschool-age children in cultural contexts outside the United States. This study examined relationally aggressive behaviours and prosocial behaviours in Australian…

The study aimed to examine the relationship between early childhood teachers' beliefs about good creative practices and their actual instructional practices; namely, characteristics of a creative teacher, environmental settings important for developing creativity, teaching strategies used for developing creativity, and criteria for judging…

The early childhood sector has in recent times engaged in processes of professionalisation. The expectations associated with engagement in professional relationships is one element of such processes. Another element is an expectation of ethical practice. The paper considers how particular representations of relationships and representations of…

This study focuses on the role of interpersonal interaction in early literacy development in one public preschool school in Bangkok, Thailand. Specifically, it explores and analyses the nature of interpersonal interaction and collaborative activities the teachers employ in teaching literacy to children. The study involves observation of 82…

Previous research has emphasized the importance of active citizenship in the early years for the development of a tolerant and cohesive Australian society. This paper presents findings related to young children's beliefs about exclusion based on gender and race. The findings draw from a larger study exploring the development of children's moral…

The arts are an important area of development for young children in their early years. By engaging with arts activities, young children are able to use their senses to explore the world. This paper reports on current arts practice in two kindergartens and two preparatory classrooms in Queensland, Australia. All sites are located in neighbouring…

In early childhood education the dominant discourse of play-based pedagogy is greatly influenced by a western play approach. This paper examines how play is valued as early learning in Bangladesh. It reports on a qualitative study that explored the understandings of four parents and four early childhood educators in semi-rural Bangladesh. Findings…

The active participation of teachers in designing classroom learning experiences contributes to teacher abilities to facilitate learning. This paper reports on a case study of one Dutch teacher designing a technology-rich learning environment for emergent literacy. Data was collected to explore the design and implementation of the learning…

A key educational reform proposal made in 2000 is to build a new culture for quality early childhood education through upgrading professional competence. Teachers are an important element of high-quality, developmentally appropriate early childhood programs. The Teacher Beliefs and Practices Survey (TBS) based on 2009 NAEYC Developmentally…

This study reports findings from a follow-up study involving mothers and early childhood professionals who completed participation in a 12-week, hands-on parent education program in the United States. In this program, mothers learned about positive guidance in a weekly seminar, and additionally practised implementing positive guidance in an early…

This article investigates early childhood educators' perceptions of advocacy in raising the professional status with multiple stakeholders in diverse contexts. The article reports on findings from a phenomenological study investigating the perceptions of 12 educators working full time in long-day-care settings across Sydney, New South Wales (NSW),…

This article presents the key findings and discussion from a research project and subsequent report: "Involving young children in decision making: An exploration of practitioners' views". This research explored early childhood practitioners'--childcare workers, kindergarten, pre-primary and grade 1-2 teachers--views on decision making for young…

Transition practices that ensure continuity between early childhood settings have been shown to be important in assisting children's short-term and long-term growth and development (Vogler, Cravello & Woodhead, 2008). In Western Australia many young children move from and between long day care (LDC) settings to kindergarten. In that state,…

This study investigated Korean children's cultural adjustment during transition to South Australian junior primary school settings. Using case-study methodology to provide a sociocultural perspective, data were collected during interviews with a sample of South Korean international students aged five to eight years, their mothers and teachers. All…