This study aimed to investigate the effect of curriculum-generated play instruction on the mathematics teaching efficacy of early childhood education pre-service teachers. The study used a one group pre-test/post-test experimental research design, supported by a qualitative approach. The participants of the study consisted of 35 pre-service…

This article discusses the central issue of the transition to preschool. Individual semi-structured interviews with school professionals and parents in the Brussels region revealed that this issue is crucial for the well-being of young children, from both an educational and a social perspective. We discovered that the education system works under…

This study analysed 33 Individualised Education Programmes developed for pre-schoolers with autism, attending inclusive special education services in North Portugal, based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health for Children and Youth. The study identified dimensions of functioning addressed in the Individualised…

This qualitative and exploratory research is aimed at investigating the underlying reasons for the professional choice of Brazilian teachers who work within early education. Seventeen teachers (seven from public schools and 10 from private schools) were interviewed in depth in a semi-structured manner. Questions concerned the reasons that guided…

Recent studies have advocated that mathematical meaning is mediated by gestures. This case study explores the gestures kindergarten children produce when learning spatial concepts in a mathematics classroom setting. Based on a video study of a mathematical lesson in a kindergarten class, we concentrated on the verbal and non-verbal behavior of one…

This study examines the multiplicity of literacies while incorporating multiple modes of meaning to understand a young trilingual child's meaning-making processes. This qualitative study reports the results of a combination of ethnographic observations and a longitudinal case study of one child's multi-literacy development from birth to…

The early childhood sector in England, known as the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), has been a site of intense policy intervention over the last decade, including the introduction of a statutory assessment of children's development at age five, conducted by teachers. National results from this assessment, the EYFS Profile, show continued…

There is growing evidence among researchers and international organisations that quality of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), and ultimately the outcomes for children and families--especially disadvantaged ones--is dependent on well-educated and competent staff, and that a lack of higher pre-service training can be partly compensated by…

Social constructivist theorists tend to identify qualitative educational research as discovering meaning and understanding by the researcher's active involvement in the construction of meaning. Although these approaches have been widely influenced by Vygotsky's social constructivist approach, his own theoretical framework has received…

This article introduces an alternative qualitative research tool: metaphor and drawing, as projections of personality features, to explore underlying concepts and values, thoughts and beliefs, fears and hesitations, aspirations and ambitions of the research subjects. These two projective tools are used to explore Greek state kindergarten head…

The aim of this qualitative case study is to explore how the teachers, parents and children describe the advantages and disadvantages of preschool education when it is located in the comprehensive school context. In addition, the study aims to clarify which dimensions of the learning environment occur in preschool? The learning environment is…

Leadership continues to be an energetically debated and contentious concept. In many contexts it elicits heated and robust discussion and illustrates a degree of disenchantment with the enactment of leadership by corporate moguls, politicians and others in positions of leadership responsibility (Wheatley, M. 2005. "Finding Our Way: Leadership…

This study aims to investigate distribution of responsibilities for leadership in early childhood education (ECE) context. It focuses on the enactments of leadership by investigating how ECE stakeholders, e.g. teachers, ECE centre directors and administrative ECE leaders in municipalities perceive the leadership responsibilities. Using focus…

When children move from preschool to primary school in Germany, this involves a transition between two distinct systems with regard to political responsibility. Following Rimm-Kaufman and Pianta's (2000) ecological and dynamic model of transition, the research project focuses on the perspectives of parents and professionals on the learning…

The focus of this article is on Finnish pre-school curricula from the early pioneering years to the start of the new millennium (1972-2000). Pre-school has been part of the Finnish education system for nearly 40 years. It has been undergoing a challenging reconstruction process and changes influenced significantly by the increasing call for…