School readiness is a dominant discourse in current policy agendas in UK and international contexts, fulfilling a range of goals such as providing children with the 'best start in life' by breaking the cycle of poverty, and preparing children for formal learning in compulsory education. Focussing on the school readiness agenda in England, this…

Early childhood care and education (ECCE) has a crucial contribution to the future life of children, and overall quality of learning and development of a country. Even though there are no well-established international criteria to evaluate the quality of ECCE programmes because of the variability in nations' economies, workforces, political…

'Well-being' is increasingly used in child rights discourses and early childhood education (ECE) policy contexts as a desirable outcome for young children. In spite of its ubiquitous use, however, child well-being remains largely under-theorised, thereby contributing to implicit understandings within policy arenas. This paper contributes to…

The vast majority of the islands in the Anglophone Caribbean ratified the Convention of the Rights of the Child shortly after its adoption by the United Nations in 1989. In this piece, we examine how the articulation of the Convention of the Rights of the Child in the Caribbean has shaped early childhood care and education. We note that though…

Early childhood care and development has increasingly become a part of the global development agenda. Fueled by a threefold rationale, rooted in development psychology, social economy, and human rights, the arguments for investing in early childhood care and development are virtually unassailable. However, this rationale is somehow at odds with…

In April 2015, the "Early Years Inspection Handbook" instructed inspectors to make a judgement on the effectiveness of leadership and management to actively promote British values in the settings. This contribution discusses the paradoxical position of fundamental British values within the cultures of education underpinning the…

Well-being is generally acknowledged as a complex concept, and leading discourses are rooted in disciplines such as philosophy, psychology and economics. Despite a wealth of theoretical explanations, child well-being is largely under-theorised. Some argue it is unlikely that philosophical discourses of well-being will straightforwardly be extended…

Grounded in children's rights, this article advances understanding of the affordances and constraints in implementing Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in educational settings with young children -- those under 7. It starts from the premise that if we are to foster democratic skills and understanding in…

This article highlights autoethnography as an arts-based methodology in early years research, giving consideration to its challenges and critics as well as the power of its application to elicit voices in a way that other methodologies do not. It embraces and models autoethnography through sharing a performative autoethnographic narrative of one…

While the importance of inclusive approaches to research has been identified, much childhood research is still done 'to' not 'with' young children, with research focusing on the experiences of children who experience disability commonly involving data from parents/families/practitioners, rather than from children themselves. In this article, we…

The current early years emphasis on ensuring young children achieve 'school readiness' has contributed to a context of academic pressure in early years settings in England. The debated term 'school readiness' is vaguely expressed in England's early years curriculum as 'Children reaching a good level of development in the prime areas of literacy…

This article explores how mapping is currently being used in social services research as well as practice, and discusses the potential for mapping to be a useful tool for resource consultants in the field. This article will review different mapping techniques, including community mapping, eco-mapping, journey mapping and institutional mapping, and…

The advances of scientific techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging and functional magnetic resonance imaging have led to an enormous increase in understanding of the physical, neurological and cognitive developments in infancy. Alongside this, radical new forms of theatre, dance and music have emerged, aimed at this same age group. Many…

This article proposes utilising the theory of practice architectures to uncover and make explicit the beliefs and implicit theories of early childhood educators, as well as to examine the conditions out of which they have emerged. The beliefs and implicit theories of early childhood educators influence many early childhood practices and play a…

The aim of this article is to examine current national early years' policy reform, which emphasises the importance of service integration, national quality standards and a quality knowledge base for educators concerning the provision of early childhood education and care. Using Queensland, Australia, as an example, a policy discourse analysis…