This paper examines the educational and epistemological implications for early childhood practitioners who work in non-Western environments. Predominantly, early childhood knowledge is strongly driven by the metanarrative of child development, which can prove problematic for practitioners working in non-Western settings. Practitioners who draw…

This article, which is a revised version of a paper presented at the XXIV World Congress of OMEP conference in Melbourne in July 2004, reports on a study that explored young children's (5-9 years) vision of their future environment in South Africa--as temporal dimension, illustrating their conceptual understanding of this concept. A sample of 320…

This paper is a report on a study of the practice of reading to young children in 1115 families in Greece. The outcome of the study shows that families from high socio-economic (HSES) backgrounds buy and read children's books to their preschoolers significantly more than families from low socio-economic (LSES) backgrounds do. HSES families use…

The argument of this paper is that in Africa, women in the past, received much support from the extended family and residential household in performing their task in child-rearing and providing early childhood education. The break up of the residential compound life, in the typical African residential household, three or more generations lived…

OMEP has a long history of advocating for the maximal development of the world's children. A plethora of recent natural disasters such as the Tsunami in Asia, hurricanes in the United States, and an earthquake in Pakistan have been major threats to the wellbeing of millions of children. Seemingly endless media reports of homeless, injured, and…

Globalisation in early childhood teacher education is examined in light of a study of the life histories and course experience of students in early childhood teacher education in Queensland, Australia. Contemporary teacher education is embedded in global economies, new technologies and marketisation, which, in turn, may contribute to students…

The early years of childhood are receiving increased public policy attention in many countries around the world. Debates on providing quality services and ensuring a good foundation for lifelong learning are generating a new interest in curriculum issues. What understandings do we have of young children? How do they access and construct knowledge…

Childcare practices such as feeding, toilet training, sleeping arrangement and discipline in three Asian countries (China, Japan, and India) are compared. These countries differ from each other in culture, religion, language and ethnic makeup from Euro-American culture. The differences in childcare practices are broadly related to the differences…

This paper describes a family literacy project that involved parents whose children were attending a pre-school centre in a low socio-economic suburb of Perth, Western Australia. A formative experimental design was used to examine the home literacy practices of the families as described by the parents, and to construct a series of workshops. The…

Some perspectives on society, family and childhood leave us with the impression that contemporary children are growing up in a post-traditional society that has decisively broken away from previous values. Based on a representative study of specific maternal childrearing values in a Scandinavian welfare society (Denmark) this article will present…

This paper describes a recent study conducted jointly by the authors in the Khomas Region of Namibia. The study developed and trialled research and documentation methods regarding very young children who had been infected or affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Because of the stigma attached to the disease, effective methods for assessing "real"…

Community participation in children's education is by no means a new concept. However, it is remarkable that for more than a decade, a small rural community in Central India, with a population of 3000, mostly agricultural labourers, has been successful in actively involving parents and other community members in their young children's education.…

East Timor is at a crossroads and in a unique position. Building a national infrastructure in the 21st century should allow policy makers to learn from the successes and failures of other nations, and to use this knowledge to develop a strong future. An investment in early childhood development is essential if that vision is to become a reality.…

This paper reports on the work in progress undertaken with young children, artists and early childhood education students in an innovative arts education partnership between Windmill Performing Arts, the national performing arts company for children and families, and the University of South Australia. The paper explains how the project was…

This paper reports two projects done by children in Hong Kong, adapting the Reggio experience to fit the local needs of the community and the children. As Carla Rinaldi said, children are constantly "in search of meaning, finding the sense and meaning of things we do" (Lee, 2001, p. 29). The first project documented how children of the Lee Wai Lee…