The purpose of this article is to report on a study exploring the sustainability work (i.e., practices and pedagogies related to sustainability education) of Finnish early childhood education and care (ECEC) teaching practice settings. Recently, the early years and ECEC have gained increasing attention in sustainability education matters.…

Daytime sleep is a significant part of the daily routine for children attending early childhood education and care (ECEC) services in Australia and many other countries. The practice of sleep-time can account for a substantial portion of the day in ECEC and often involves a mandated sleep/rest period for all children, including older…

Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) policies and practices are local, historically and socially context-specific constructions. In addition to local ideals and policies, discursive practices concerning ECEC are influenced by universal ideals that are described and assigned by the member states of the United Nations Convention on the Rights…

Over the past 20 years, more than 6,000 community-based childcare centers (CBCCs) have been created in mostly rural areas of Malawi. Although the original purpose of these CBCCs was to meet the care needs of orphans and vulnerable children affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the services have since expanded their mandate to provide early…

"Starting Strong" (2001) and "Starting Strong II" (2006), the OECD Reports on early childhood education services in 20 countries, emphasized the need for governments to take steps to integrate early childhood education and care services: child care and kindergarten in particular. Integration has become a policy agenda that…

Australian educators are currently engaging with wide-ranging, national early childhood reform that is reshaping Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). The Australian reform agenda reflects many of the early childhood policy directions championed by bodies, such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the United…

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…

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…

The UNESCO-UNICEF joint regional policy review project was launched in September 2006 with the aim to support the countries of Asia-Pacific region in meeting the first goal of Education For All (EFA) on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) by identifying, documenting and sharing good practices as well as constraints and challenges in early…

Analysis of early childhood human resource development and management policies in South Korea and six other countries precipitated guidelines for establishing national policy for early childhood education and care (ECEC) in South Korea. The guidelines address basic principles, educational purpose, early childhood education and care operation,…