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In most majority countries, early childhood educators’ work occurs in a context increasingly dominated by neoliberal logic. A large body of literature emphasises that neoliberalism flourishes in society by fuelling mutual distrust and competition among people to pursue individual performance and material gain. This system has crept into education systems which were set up with very different philosophies, becoming an intrinsic part of educators’ work, negatively affecting the educators and their image of themselves. Utilising a variety of qualitative methodologies, this paper reports on research projects undertaken in three countries that highlight some of the neoliberal barriers to quality early childhood education and care (ECEC). It also offers ways forward to support educators within this context.

he benefits of high-quality Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) as a prerequisite and opportunity for development, especially for children and families at risk of social exclusion, are widely recognized. High-quality educational practices for children at risk of social exclusion (RSE) should be flexible and aligned with their individual needs. This study uses a national stratified random sample of 1, 142 Croatian preschool teachers to examine how they perceive the quality of educational practices regarding children at RSE. Preschool teachers perceive conditions and opportunities for quality education of children at RSE in ECEC by providing activities that promote diversity, building partnerships with parents, and children's development and learning. Perceived conditions and opportunities for children with RSE were related to teachers' formal education level: their master's degree and prior participation in training on developmentally appropriate practices for children with RSE. Only one-fifth of the teachers had recently participated in in-service training on children with RSE, indicating the need for high-quality teacher in-service training to acquire skills to support this group of children and their parents. Teacher in-service training can improve the perception of better conditions and opportunities for quality pedagogical practice that addresses the individual needs of each child at risk of social exclusion.

Polska jest krajem, w którym obszar edukacji przedszkolnej bardzo ucierpiał w okresie przejścia do neoliberalnej demokracji w 1989 roku. Co więcej, cały system edukacji wciąż odczuwa skutki ciągle zmieniających się reform sterowanych politycznie, które nie zawsze koncentrują się na dobru dziecka, lecz często kapitalizują populistyczne żądania. Ponadto wciąż - mimo zmian - istnieje rozbieżność regionalna między miastami (a zwłaszcza wielkimi ośrodkami miejskimi) a obszarami wiejskimi, na których przez lata nie było zorganizowanej opieki przedszkolnej. Prywatyzacja sektora doprowadziła do dwojakich konsekwencji - z jednej strony do większej dostępności opieki (zwłaszcza dla zamożnych rodziców), a z drugiej do rosnącej wczesnej segregacji dzieci (tzn. oferta edukacyjna w prywatnych placówkach opiekuńczych jest postrzegana jako lepsza od tej w często ograniczonych finansowo placówkach publicznych). W ostatnich latach można zaobserwować zmiany, np. prawne zagwarantowanie wszystkim trzylatkom miejsca w przedszkolu, ale wciąż jest wiele do zrobienia, a jedną z tych stałych potrzeb jest kwestia systemowego podejścia do pracy z dziećmi niepełnosprawnymi czy z rodzin zagrożonych wykluczeniem społecznym. Wszystkie te kwestie przekonały nas do postawienia dzieci niepełnosprawnych w centrum naszych badań i podjęcia próby wprowadzenia metody video coachingu jako narzędzia do lepszego zrozumienia i interpretacji potrzeb dzieci i w tym artykule prezentujemy jego zastosowanie. For every child to be seen The authors of the article present an innovative method of work in schools and other educational establishments where children requiring special pedagogical care are taught. Video coaching aims at providing educational and organizational aids, and at the same time allows for a better understanding of the needs of children with disabilities. Video coaching also has advantages in terms of improving teachers’ professional competences - it makes them aware what changes are worth introducing in their everyday educational work.

A growing body of research indicates that high-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) significantly contributes to children’s development (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2018). Research (Douglass, 2019) suggests that the leadership practice of centre directors is an essential contributor of positive working relationships and workplace environments, and in turn, high-quality ECEC. Little is known, however, about what centre directors do to lead high-quality services, and specifically, how they establish and maintain effective working relationships among staff. This study is the first in Australia to investigate how a centre director in an Excellent quality-rated ECEC service exercises leadership to foster effective relationships and teamwork among staff. A mixed-method research methodology based on a constructivist paradigm and which utilised leadership and ecological theory was adopted. Data for the study was generated through a survey, semi-structured interviews, and centre documents, and the thematic analysis method (Braun & Clarke, 2006) was employed to analyse the data. Findings revealed that the centre director primarily exercised transformational leadership, with some evidence of distributed and transactional leadership, to positively impact the relationships and teams’ maintenance, in turn contributing to high-quality ECEC. The study also revealed that organisational, team/staff, and individual factors directly and positively support the director’s leadership and its effectiveness in building constructive relationships and teams. The findings of this study contribute to understandings of leadership in context, the development of leadership theory and practice in ECEC, and ECEC policy and regulatory requirements on how centre directors can exercise different leadership styles to foster working relationships and teamwork in ECEC services in Australia.

Comparative welfare state research has mostly examined the outcomes of active labour market policies and work-family reconciliation policies separately. As a result, potential complementarities between these policy areas have received scant attention empirically. Using macro-level data, this study answers the question to what extent, and in which way, governments' efforts in active labour market policies (ALMP) and in early childhood education and care (ECEC) services are correlated with women's employment rates, women's unemployment and inactivity rates in 30 OECD countries from 1985 to 2018. The article theorizes about how the various policies that constitute a welfare state relate to each other, distinguishing between pluralism, complementarity and substitutability. I interpret the empirical findings as being consistent with welfare pluralism, in the sense that ALMP and ECEC policies work together in improving women's employment rates in slightly different ways: ALMP is associated with low female unemployment rates, whereas ECEC also is associated with lower inactivity rates for women. There was, however, more support for the notion of substitution rather than complementarity: the marginal benefits associated with an increase in either ALMP or ECEC were smaller in the context of large investments in the other policy. In other words, the highest rates of women's employment, and the lowest rates of unemployment and inactivity, are found in countries with large investments in both ALMP and ECEC, but such higher investments are associated with diminishing returns.

Changing paradigms in the view of the child and childhood result in repositioning the child in contemporary society. There is an emphasis on understanding and respecting children’s perspectives and the perception of the children as active participants in their own lives. The repositioning of the child was further enhanced by reflections on children’s rights, especially after the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). The abovementioned changes have led researchers to re-examine the child’s role within society. Nowadays, pedagogy is founded in a child- centred approach. Whether we discuss the child as the centre or in the centre (Chung & Walsh, 2000), the child has a main role. Depending on the perspective, children’s active role may be questioned. However, when positioning the child as the centre (of the world, of the learning), we may deny his/her real participatory role. We let the adults organize children’s learning from an adult perspective. Putting the child in the centre of his/her own learning should result in respecting the child’s perspective. These approaches may influence the adults’ role in children’s lives and learning. While teachers are professionals, and mostly aware of this paradigmatic shift, parents may re-question their possibilities to take responsibility for children’s care and education. We are witnessing new parenting styles (i.e. helicopter parenting, overwhelming parenting, curling parenting). Do children’s participation eliminate adults’ responsibility for children? What is the role of professionals in relation to children’s participation? These questions need to be further discussed within the scientific and professional community in order to clarify the adults’ role, at a time dedicated to implementing child participation.

Previous studies have found that students whose home language differs from the language of instruction are prone to school inadequacy and to dropping out early (Cummins, 2015; EC, 2013) This is especially true for the lusophone population in Luxembourg. This thesis aims to capture the experiences of these migrant children in the Luxembourgish educational system to identify possible matches as well as mismatches between children’s support structures at home, school and daycare centre. Drawing on a sociocultural framework that understands that children learn languages when engaging in social practices with members of their communities (Rogoff, 1990) and that gives a prominent role to children’s active role when interacting with their environments (Van Lier, 2004), this thesis investigates the role of the adults in shaping the immediate environments of three newly arrived five-year-old Brazilian children in Luxembourg. It presents two cases studies that examine the supporting structures that parents at home, teachers at school and educators in Maison Relais pour Enfants (a non-formal education institution) provide to support language development of these children. The data from this qualitative study was collected from October 2017 to July 2018, combining participant-observation, fieldnotes, video recordings, photographs, questionnaires and interviews. The data analysis drew on approximately 170 hours of field observation, 25 hours of video material, photographs, interviews, and questionnaires. It was then analysed by employing different qualitative methods, i.e. Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) (Vaismoradi & Snelgrove, 2019), Sociocultural Discourse Analysis (SDA) (Mercer, 2004), and Thematic Content Analysis (TCA) (Anderson, 2007; Vaisomoradi & Snelgrove, 2019). The findings show that the adults designed physical learning spaces and selected material that afforded language and literacy development. They also offered language-related activities such as phonemic awareness exercises, tracing letters, reading books for children, asking children to retell stories, proposing songs and rhymes, among many others. In addition, adults deployed scaffolding strategies when talking to children, especially questions, repetitions, and feedback. While each setting is unique, some similarities could nevertheless be found. The children encountered the following features across the different settings: literacy, play, structure, and multilingual adults with a monolingual ethos. Overall, the findings show a positive start for the three children.

In Europe, migration, mobility, technology and globalisation have resulted in multilingualism at the societal and individual level. These changes require policy-makers and educationalists to adapt teaching. For the last decades, institutions and scholars have called for multilingual education programmes that recognise the existence of the multiple languages spoken by children. The policies of the Council of Europe encourage ‘pluralistic approaches’ as well as early language learning. In the United States, García and her team developed multilingual pedagogies, later called translanguaging pedagogies, that draw on the students’ entire semiotic repertoire to leverage their learning. Research findings in monolingual, bilingual and multilingual contexts testify to the benefits of translanguaging for learning, well-being and identity-building. Such programmes are in line with the UN convention of children’s rights demanding respect for their language, culture and values. While multilingual programmes have been implemented in early childhood education and primary schools in several countries in Europe, professionals seem to be unsure of how to promote multilingualism and deal with language diversity. This presentation is based on the perspectives and practices of professionals in early education and primary schools in multilingual Luxembourg where a programme of plurilingual education has been implemented in the early years in 2017 and where children follow a trilingual curriculum in primary school. I will provide insights into the perspectives of practitioners by drawing on several research projects carried out over the last 6 years in Luxembourg. I will show excerpts of interviews and observations that indicate that early years practitioners have opened up to multilingual education over the last years and are tackling the multiple challenges they face during the implementation of the multilingual programme. Translanguaging also exists in primary schools but a clear language hierarchy is in place and teachers and children do not draw on their entire semiotic repertoire. The presentation concludes with implications for practitioners and policy-makers.

Translanguaging pedagogies promise to take account of students’ language and socio-cultural backgrounds and contribute to their academic achievements (García, Johnson, and Seltzer, 2017). Researchers who have investigated translanguaging practices in monolingual, bilingual and multilingual contexts, have shown that translanguaging promotes learning, well-being, and identity-building (Lewis, Jones, and Baker, 2012; García & Sylvan, 2011; Young & Mary, 2016; Vaish 2019a). Studies in early childhood education and care (ECEC) remain scarce, particularly those that focus on the use of institutional languages and home languages. Furthermore, little is known about the implementation of translanguaging pedagogies and the challenges faced by professionals. One exception comes from Vaish (2019 a, b) who investigated the practices of primary teachers in Singapore who taught in English, Chinese and Malay. She identified three main challenges: superdiversity, negative attitudes towards home language, and teacher-centred pedagogies. Studies on professional development (PD) in ECEC have shown that PD can help practitioners change beliefs, knowledge and practices to some extent (Egert et al. 2018). This presentation comes from multilingual Luxembourg, where 63.7% of the 4-year-olds do not speak Luxembourgish as their home language. Since 2017, educators in ECEC are required to develop children’s skills in Luxembourgish, familiarise them with French and value their home languages. Professional development courses help practitioners move away from monolingual policies and practices that existed prior to 2017, and implement multilingual pedagogies. This paper examines the challenges teachers and educators faced during this process. It is based on seven group interviews carried out during two research projects; the first aimed to develop multilingual pedagogies (MuLiPEC), the second collaboration with parents and multiliteracies (COMPARE). The findings, based on thematic analysis, indicate, firstly, that the educators faced multiple challenges when trying to change their practices such as their uncertainty of how to deal with multiliteracy, their behaviourist views on education, their inexperience of planning literacy activities in multiple languages, and, secondly, the ways in which they overcame them. The PD courses helped them reflect on their beliefs, challenge monolingual ideologies, and develop knowledge about language learning and new multilingual practices (Kirsch 2020). The findings shed light on the complexities of the implementation process and the support needed for professional learning.

The aim of this dissertation was to examine the diverse ways in which immigrant parents support their children’s development, learning, education in school, and integration into the wider society. We examined the complex interplay of parents’ personal characteristics and preferences such as their acculturation strategies, on the one hand, and factors in the wider social context, such as the integration policies at the local and the national level, on the other hand, to explain the variation in parents’ support to children at home and in collaboration with children’s (pre)schools. Throughout this dissertation, we focused on the perspectives of families with a Turkish or Maghrebian migration background with pre- and primary school aged children across Europe. Most data are collected within the European ISOTIS project (www.isotis.org). The results seem to imply that while immigrant parents are often facing serious adversities, most of them try to do their best in supporting their children, both at home (by offering a stimulating learning environment) and at (pre)schools (by parental participation and establishing trusting parent-teacher relationships). The findings underscore the diversity in the experiences of immigrant families across Europe. Several implications for practices and policies aiming at integration and upward social mobility of immigrants are discussed. This dissertation tentatively points to the benefits of multicultural policies (versus assimilation policies), emphasizes support for immigrant families in providing rich language at home regardless the specific language they prefer to use and acknowledges the need for inclusive climates at (early) education settings that are open to new, co-constructed cultural models.

The aim of this dissertation was to examine the diverse ways in which immigrant parents support their children’s development, learning, education in school, and integration into the wider society. We examined the complex interplay of parents’ personal characteristics and preferences such as their acculturation strategies, on the one hand, and factors in the wider social context, such as the integration policies at the local and the national level, on the other hand, to explain the variation in parents’ support to children at home and in collaboration with children’s (pre)schools. Throughout this dissertation, we focused on the perspectives of families with a Turkish or Maghrebian migration background with pre- and primary school aged children across Europe. Most data are collected within the European ISOTIS project (www.isotis.org). The results seem to imply that while immigrant parents are often facing serious adversities, most of them try to do their best in supporting their children, both at home (by offering a stimulating learning environment) and at (pre)schools (by parental participation and establishing trusting parent-teacher relationships). The findings underscore the diversity in the experiences of immigrant families across Europe. Several implications for practices and policies aiming at integration and upward social mobility of immigrants are discussed. This dissertation tentatively points to the benefits of multicultural policies (versus assimilation policies), emphasizes support for immigrant families in providing rich language at home regardless the specific language they prefer to use and acknowledges the need for inclusive climates at (early) education settings that are open to new, co-constructed cultural models.

幼児期の保育と小学校教育との連携，とりわけ幼稚園と小学校の連携は明治期に幼稚園が開園して以来の長年の課題であり，学校体系の検討の一環として，また「小1プロブレム」解消のための方途として検討されてきた。本稿は，保幼小連携のうち特に保育所と小学校の連携の観点から，先行研究の知見の整理，報告書データの二次分析，ならびに新指針告示以降の東京都23区の接続期に関わる政策動向などの分析から，今日的な課題を検討した。結果，2011（平成23）年時点で保小連携のための接続期カリキュラムの策定に関し実態と意識の乖離があったこと，これらの課題意識やモデルカリキュラムの提示などを背景としつつ接続期カリキュラムを策定している自治体・園が増加していること，新指針改訂以降に作成された接続期カリキュラムではアプローチカリキュラムはもとより，0歳時からの乳児・低年齢幼児保育についてもその基礎となるものとして共通項が柱立てされているプログラムが多くみられることを指摘し得た。, The aim of this study is to clarify the current issues on the transition between nursery schools and elementary schools in Japan. Former researches accumulate findings on the cooperation, and transition between one of the other Japanese ECEC institutions, kindergartens and elementary schools, and point out the importance of making the joint curriculums, approach curriculum of kindergarten and start curriculum of elementary schools to bridge the gap between the different educational methodologies and cultures. By re-analyzing the statistical data on the former research reports, and examining the current transition policies of the twenty-three wards of Tokyo, following 3 points are found. 1) In 2011, nursery school teachers already felt the importance of making transition curriculums. 2) Supported by those underlying awareness and model curriculums, the number of the local governments and schools which made transition curriculum gradually become higher in recent years, and 3) in the several new transition curriculum, the considerations for the educational consistency are detected even in the curriculums for infants.

First published as a Review in Advance on June 14, 2019 This review looks at the current state of research on early childhood education and care (ECEC) from a sociological stance. We summarize how children's experiences and benefits from participation in ECEC are related to their families' socioeconomic position in modern industrial nations. By bringing together child development and intervention research from economics, education, and psychology with a sociological, social stratification perspective, our report focuses on ECEC as a policy strategy for equalization in early childhood. We argue that two major stratifiers, families and country-specific ECEC settings, need to be considered more closely when we seek to understand the efficacy of early educational interventions in modern societies. While well-targeted educational programs are found to lower achievement gaps among children from different social backgrounds, a disproportionate use of early education by socioeconomically privileged families may offset the benefits of early interventions. In addition, the current stratification patterns in various nationwide ECEC contexts may further strengthen the gaps in children's (early) achievements.

This study explores the relationship between ECEC participation for young children (0-2-year-olds) and ECEC policies using multilevel Tobit modelling. At the micro-level, the socioecological model is employed to control for the individual- and family-related circumstances, using the EU-SILC data from 2014; and at the macro-level, policy measures regarding the provision, regulation, and financing of ECEC are tested. Particular attention is paid to the role of these policies on two major sources of disadvantage: low-income status and migration background. The findings reveal that hourly ECEC participation is higher in countries where the legal entitlement to ECEC and free ECEC provision start early, the ECEC system is unitary, the structural quality standards are high, and public spending per child is high, and the parental fees are low. While universal access and structural quality policies are particularly favourable for disadvantaged children, high public spending and low parental or private financing for ECEC do not correlate with higher use by disadvantaged children, confirming the risk of a Matthew effect with the way ECEC is financed. ispartof: Children And Youth Services Review vol:122 pages:1-31 status: Published online

RESUMO O presente artigo tem por objetivo, a partir do pensamento feminista negro, contribuir com os estudos da produção das culturas infantis, referentes à participação das crianças desde a pequena infância na construção da realidade social, trazendo para a cena as crianças com idade entre 0 a 3 anos, do coletivo infantil de uma creche pública, e as suas reinterpretações a respeito das intersecções entre as práticas racistas e sexistas. Traremos para discussão as crianças pequenininhas, negras e brancas, suas resistências e suas transgressões, que tensionam as hierarquias patriarcais e racistas. Construindo outros modos de se viver no mundo, por meio de suas brincadeiras, elas lançam outros olhares para as relações vigentes na sociedade e desafiam o poder adultocêntrico que pretende calá-las. ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is, based on the black feminist thought, to contribute to the studies on the production of peer cultures, regarding the participation of children since early childhood in the construction of social reality, bringing to the scene children aged 0 to 3 from the child collective of a public ECEC (early childhood education and care) and their reinterpretations towards the intersections between racist and sexist practices. We will bring to discussion the tiny young children, black and white, their resistance and transgressions, which tension the patriarchal and racist hierarchies. By building other ways of living in the world, through their games, they cast other perspectives at the relationships in force in society and defy the adult-centric power that intends to silence them. RESUMEN El propósito de este artículo es, basado en el pensamiento feminista negro, contribuir a los estudios de la producción de culturas infantiles, refiriéndose a la participación de niños y niñas desde la primera infancia en la construcción de la realidad social, llevando a la escena a niños y niñas de 0 a 3 años del colectivo infantil de una escuela infantil pública y sus reinterpretaciones sobre las intersecciones entre las prácticas racistas y sexistas. Traeremos a discusión a los niños chiquititos y niñas chiquititas, blancos y negros, su resistencia y transgresiones, que tensan las jerarquías patriarcales y racistas. Al construir otras formas de vivir en el mundo, a través de sus juegos, lanzan otra mirada sobre las relaciones vigentes en la sociedad y desafían el poder adultocéntrico que intenta silenciarlos.