Most cultures carry an idea of music being connected to emotion. New research suggests that we may also acquire emotion knowledge from our music experiences. This article investigates music experience as a mediating tool for emotion knowledge in early childhood, as revealed through qualitative interviews of adults. The interviewees describe music…

Traditionally, play has been viewed as the guiding pedagogical practice for kindergartens in most industrialised countries. Central to this approach has been a strong belief in free play. As governments are spending more money on early childhood education, many Western countries are demanding greater learning outcomes for preschool aged children.…

Discussion of learning in the kindergarten context is growing both in Norway and internationally. This article focuses on some central aspects of learning described by groups of children aged 4-6 years, in three Norwegian kindergartens. The research concerns children's descriptions of aspects of learning experienced in their everyday life in…

This article presents a large project on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The project was organised by OMEP, the World Organisation for Early Childhood Education, where the authors were the appointed as project coordinators. The purpose of ESD is to reorient education towards sustainability. The aims of the project were to gather…

This article sketches out a philosophy and practice of open listening, linking open listening to Bergson's (1998) concept of creative evolution. I draw on examples of small children at play from a variety of sources, including Reggio-Emilia-inspired preschools in Sweden. The article offers a challenge to early childhood educators to listen and to…

Only recently has Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) become a question for Early Childhood Education (ECE, including care). Since it is a new area of content in ECE, there are also many questions to sort out. Some people claim that young children should be sheltered from all the problems in the world, which is an understandable…

In the school's conception of learning, the cultural aspect of children's play has often been lacking. In different countries, it is emphasized that play is important for learning (Dockett and Fleer, Play and pedagogy in early childhood: Bending the rules. Harcourt Brace & Comp, Sydney, "1999"; Lillemyr, Nordisk Pedagogik/Nordic Educational…

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge of children's introduction to pre-school as social practice with a focus on subjectification from a gender perspective. This introductory process is given great importance in the Swedish pre-school. This paper is based on a study carried out in one strategically chosen preschool infant group.…

The article investigates the discursive constructions of preschool girls and points to how girls are positioned, assessed and constructed by adults in parent-teacher conferences in Swedish preschools. Using transcripts of audio-taped episodes from parent-teacher conferences, the analysis reveals that gender is an important aspect of the adults'…

This article gives a general picture of the policy and main structural features of early childhood education services for the younger children in Finland. It also provides an overview of the research on 1 to 3-year-old children in day care centres carried out in Finland during the last 15 years, the focus being on a review of all the eight…

This article seeks to identify the relation between policy and lived life, for the small child in the Danish creche. To accomplish this, the article integrates demography, traditions, national curriculum and psychological, educational, and recent developments in research. It is an attempt to reveal knowledge and consequences, by conducting the…

Despite the increasing demand for early child care and education (ECCE) services in Greece, the availability of such services continues to be rather limited compared to other European countries. In accordance, the relevant research, especially for children under 3 years of age, is almost nonexistent. This article discusses in brief some findings…

This article provides an overview of ECEC services in France for children under three. It reviews research carried out in this area, and shows its genesis, main issues, cultural context and modalities of its production. The French provision for the under threes' is characterized by its increasing diversification. French research shows a diversity…

This article provides an overview of Italian ECEC services, their development and educational culture. In Italy, out of home day care for children under 3 became a quantitatively significant phenomenon in the last 30 years. Its development was characterized by the close collaboration between research agencies and ECEC services. A rich variety of…

The purpose of this article is to point to some patterns dealt with in Swedish research with 1 to 3-year-old children in preschool. The analyses focus on questions posed, theoretical perspectives, methods and results. The results give a unique picture of how toddlers participate, interact and communicate while engaged in how to master various…