The separation of young children from their families for most of their awake hours, and the specific segregation of children by discrete chronological age through classrooms and grade levels, is a relatively new phenomenon in the history of human society. Such settler colonial constructs continue to influence early learning design, policy and…

In Aotearoa New Zealand, there has been a significant increase in the numbers of infants and toddlers participating in 'out-of-home' care and education settings. While initial teacher education programmes include references to this age group, due to competing priorities in the programmes, space to include the depth of knowledge required is scarce.…

This study followed three preservice student teachers as they navigated a semester-long infant-toddler practicum designed to enact a relationship-based approach to teaching and learning. Selected participants were in particular and contrasting placement settings, which served as a catalyst for engaging in critical reflection in multiple ways.…

This article is based on doctoral research which contributed to my understanding of early years professional development and learning grounded in Froebelian principles. Through two freestanding but related case studies in London and San Miniato, the article explores the current professional learning and development for educators working with…

The early childhood development (ECD) sector in low- and middle-income countries continues to be under-valued and under-funded. Birth to 3 is further marginalised in this constrained informal sector. The feminised workforce experiences economic and social injustices in an under-developed human resource system. The aim of this article is to engage…

Using a qualitative descriptive design, researchers describe and identify similarities and differences in the professional preparation of infant-toddler care and education (ITCE) teachers at university based teacher education programmes in Hong Kong China, Aotearoa New Zealand, and the USA. Researchers overview the ITCE landscape, describe…

In Portugal, professional preparation for working with infants and toddlers is often characterized as insufficient and/or inadequate in light of the specific professionalism required for working with very young children. This study is situated in initial professional education (IPE) and, in particular, on practicum experiences within an early…

There is increasing concern about the ways in which neoliberalism is impacting Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), particularly in relation to infants and toddlers. The neoliberal agenda positions the outdoors as risky and a place to be physically active, potentially excluding the youngest children from these spaces. Drawing upon case study…

Lately, pedagogical coaches have been deployed in childcare as a form of continuous professional development (CPD) with the aim of improving the quality of childcare. While we have a clear understanding of what coaching should involve to be effective and how it improves the learning outcomes of young children, research has failed to capture the…

This article describes the professional development program, Baby Playspace Learning (BPL), and evaluates its capacity to build close relationships between educators, parents, their infants and infant peers during the morning transitions in ECEC settings. Using a pre-post design, video recordings of 20 (10 pre and 10 post) morning transitions were…

The main aim of this paper is to reconstruct the process of becoming a caregiver working in early childhood and care (ECEC) daycare centres for children up to three years of age in Poland. The theoretical framework is the concept of becoming, through which the formation of professional identity, within the social world of the nursery, is…

This study took place in the University of West Attica, Department of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in Greece, founded in 2018, which focuses on the learning, development and education of children under four years of age. Greece has a split early childhood education system, and there is minimal attention given to infant and toddler…

We report an evaluation of a book gifting scheme (the Dolly Parton Imagination Library; DPIL) that targeted families from disadvantaged areas. We considered the impact that length of participation had on children's interest in literacy-related activities, the frequency of parent-child reading interactions, duration of reading, and whether the…

Nursery practitioners often highlight the difference between the children who attend morning sessions and those who attend afternoon sessions, with the feeling that the morning session children are more receptive and show greater improvement in their development than those who attend in the afternoon, but no specific data OR evidence has been…

Teachers' professional vision is the ability to notice and interpret classroom interactions and may be considered an aspect of a teacher's competence. Despite research on school teachers, little is known about this competence in early childhood teachers. In this study, the relation between early childhood teachers' professional vision and their…