The global rise of a neoliberal "new politics of parenting" discursively constructs parents in poverty as the reason for, and remedy to, child poverty. This allows for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) to become a key policy lever by using human technologies to intervene in and regulate the lives of parents and children in…

Parental involvement (PI) and child-rearing beliefs were examined amongst parents whose children attended state-run kindergartens across Singapore. A total of 244 parents completed an online survey consisting of a Child-Rearing Beliefs Scale, a PI Scale, and demographic details. Results indicated respondents were generally low-income earners with…

Despite the growing body of evidence that the origins of bullying lie in early childhood, very little is known about the nature of the phenomenon in preschool groups. The current understanding among studies conducted in the school environment is that bullying prevention can only be effective if training with individual children takes place…

This paper examines early childhood education (ECE) by applying and developing relational-spatial perspectives on everyday life in educational institutions for young children. The aim is to investigate the dynamic process of construction of space and to illustrate with selected empirical episodes how this process occurs in ECE. Drawing on authors…

This study examined the effectiveness of one province's Kindergarten Quality Rating System in differentiating quality levels using the Chinese Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (CECERS). Results confirmed that, except for the difference between the Standard and Level-3 Kindergartens, the CECERS was successful in detecting the…

Abu Dhabi Education Council's new school model recognizes the value of play, although anecdotal evidence suggests that there are challenges to play in the preschool context. This article reports on challenges from the English Medium teacher perspective. Findings show that challenges are related to: (a) children meeting teacher expectations…

Early childhood practice has often been described as complex in both policy documents and research literature; however, less attention has been given to exploring the nature and consequences of complexity in early childhood practice. At a time of intense policy attention in many national contexts, there is the potential for closing down, as well…

This study examined the quality of preschool teachers' interactive conversations with three- and four-year-olds in two Head Start classrooms serving children from low-income families in the United States. Over a period of 20?weeks, 10 bi-weekly observations of conversations (totaling 15?h per classroom) were conducted in one small-group (Play…

The aim is to investigate Swedish preschool teachers' accounts of children's learning in relation to the goals in the Swedish preschool curriculum. The research question is: "What do preschool teachers see as fundamental aspects of learning in preschool practice?" The study is based on interactionist perspectives founded in…

Early childhood is an important time for the development of resilience. A recently completed study has followed three cohorts of resilient children and young people living in disadvantaged areas in Victoria, Australia, through different transitions in their educational careers. This paper focuses on the early childhood cohort, where we have…

This paper reports on a pilot study of the social interactions between two children labelled with special educational needs and their peers in an early years setting. Data from play observations and staff interviews are used to examine the dynamics of friendship groups that the two children have developed and the way that they attempt to make new…

This project highlights preschool teachers' views of toddlers' learning in mathematics. The Swedish national curriculum covers even the youngest children who are 1-3?years old. Interesting questions are thus: what should mathematics be for this age group and how should preschool teachers work with maths to achieve the curriculum…

In this article, we explore the reality of Icelandic preschool teachers who are, as in most other countries, predominantly female. The gendered nature of the role and the current identity adopted by preschool teachers appear to impact on their perceived status and professionalism. In this process, stakeholders in early childhood education (ECE),…

This study investigated five Australian early childhood educators' negotiation of the complex terrain of working in partnership with Chinese parents regarding their children's language usage in early childhood settings. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken to explore educators' views on children's language usage in early…

The aim of this study is to investigate communication between preschool teachers and children in documentation situations. The focus is also on what preschool teachers actually document. The research questions are: What characterizes the communication between teachers and children when these teachers are documenting at the same time? What is the…