The global diffusion of knowledge and practice concerning children's development, early education, and welfare is today among the more remarkable phenomena that can be linked to the emergence of global information networks. Much of this knowledge has come to constitute a normative discourse about early childhood with firm roots in the development of child psychology in Western Europe, Russia, and the United States during the first part of the 20th century. Even a cursory glance at early childhood education and development programmes in universities and educational training institutes around the world reveals a startling emphasis on a few major theorists such as Piaget, Dewey, and Vygotsky, whose theories fill relatively standardized courses in child development in which the true nature and characteristics of a universal child are disseminated. Best practices in early childhood care and education are increasingly represented in popular media as converging around models of developmentally appropriate practice. Indigenous views of children and appropriate early education are being increasingly challenged by what is represented by childhood experts around the world as more current, progressive notions of childhood. The diffusion of theories and ideologies about child-rearing across cultural borders is normal and natural in a global age. Despite the apparent homogeneity of thinking about raising children, local knowledge often remains robust, forming an integrative base for incorporation of new ideas. Yet, childhood ideologies may be particularly susceptible to the uncontested and implicit normativity inherent in both scholarly and popularized views of child needs emanating from media-powerful countries such as the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]