This paper reports a study to investigate the views of early childhood educators working in a range of early childhood settings in four European countries, Denmark, Greece, Italy and the UK. Recent research into European perspectives on early education, special educational needs and inclusion is reviewed highlighting: a multinational call for action on teaching children with learning difficulties; issues related to the inclusion (and exclusion) of children with emotional and behavioural difficulties; the prevalence of inclusive policies in parallel with some exclusive practices and attitudes, and issues of professional development to support educators' work with children with learning difficulties. Secondly, the rationale, aims and research design of the Comparative Approaches to Preschool Education: Special Educational Needs (CAPE: SEN) study are outlined. This survey of 113 European early childhood educators working, in the main, in mainstream/generic settings used three methods of data gathering: questionnaires, email conversations and face-to-face interviews. The paper draws on extracts from the data to discuss four themes: educators' personal/professional experiences; professional development; inclusion and exclusion; and the roles of parents. In conclusion, four structures to which future cross-cultural studies need to be related are identified.