This paper proposes an interactional model of education for early childhood education and compares this model to two more traditional models (subject dominated and child centered). The aim of educational services for young children should be to provide an environment within which children are able to develop towards autonomy, competence, rationality and sensitivity. In the interactional model, learning occurs when the individual acts upon or reacts to some aspect of the world rather than when something is transmitted or unfolds within the child. The learner is assumed to take an active role in what will be learned, for s/he must engage in some form of reciprocal interchange if learning is to take place. Each child acts with purpose, bringing to the learning situation an exclusive set of capabilities and predispositions. In this model, knowledge is defined as the meanings which are generated as a result of interaction between individual and some object, situation or idea. Education is defined as learning that is intentional. Values are also seen to result from inner and outer experience arbitrated by the sense of self. It is proposed that a central concern of education is the effect that educational experiences have upon the sense of self, and thus on what children accept as right, desirable or worthy. (SB)