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This article presents findings from a representative case study of a typical childcare centre in Singapore that achieved an emerging level of quality certification despite being under-resourced as a non-profit centre. Like other centres, it was navigating a climate of early childhood care and education (ECCE) policy reforms and teacher shortage. Given that quality rating has existed for a few years, the study aimed to explore centre-based conditions that could hinder or facilitate teachers' distributed pedagogical leadership and the development of a community of practice--both assumed to be necessary for teachers' continued learning and improvement of centres' practices. Qualitative data were generated across 10 months through observations, individual interviews and focus group discussions to journey with the teaching team as they negotiated relationships and built a shared vision for their practices. Results are presented here as three overarching themes that explicate: (a) the inevitable influences of the national context of the sector's workforce; (b) organisational culture and power relations; and (c) pedagogical vision. These illustrate the intricacies involved in centre-based quality improvement work, signalling the need for more investigations into the everyday realities of ECCE reforms as experienced by teachers-as-learners and leaders.

This paper explores the relationship between workforce competence, migration, and quality improvement in the Asia-Pacific through analysis of Early Childhood Education (ECE) policy texts from three East Asia Summit countries. Content (word level) analysis of salient policy texts was undertaken to address two questions: How are culture and diversity "conceptualized" in these texts? How are diverse educators "positioned" in these texts? We show that, despite differing historical trajectories of ECE, policy frameworks in all three countries fail to sufficiently acknowledge the potential contribution of migrant educators to quality improvement initiatives. We conclude by calling for greater attention to workforce mobility and diversity in ECE policies, and for further research into the untapped competence of migrant educators.

In the field of early childhood education, play has become synonymous with curriculum but is sometimes viewed narrowly as a pedagogical tool to enhance child development. However, it is known from a range of multidisciplinary work that child-initiated and child-guided forms and contexts of playing can offer rich insight into diversity in childhood(s), peer cultures and children's meaning-making. This article draws on an ethnographic study that was conducted in a full-day childcare centre in Singapore and focused on children's everyday world of self-initiated play, improvisation and peer culture. Specifically, it presents examples of songs and rhythmic chants created by a group of 4-year-olds. Such 'musicking' is a form of social play that illustrates children's ways of teasing, relating with others and sense-making within their contemporary social world. The article argues for educators to look beyond the instrumental value of play in the preschool curriculum, inviting all to take some time to allow children's multifarious play activities to influence their adult sensibilities.

It is arguable whether Singapore's mainstream schools are moving towards "inclusion" by providing support for students with mild to moderate disabilities through the provision of a newly created para-professional called the Allied Educators (Learning and Behavioural) [AED(LBS)]. Since 2005, the government has provided an incremental supply of these trained para-professionals to offer both in-class support and withdrawal sessions. Many primary and secondary schools have one such para-professional catering to an unpredictable number of children with "and" without assessed learning needs. This paper draws upon data from a study investigating how a group of 30 newly qualified AED(LBS) para-professionals shaped their professional role during their first year in school. Data were generated through an online survey, interviews; and analysed through theories on identity and communities of practice. Findings focus on how the participants had learned to grow into their roles despite contradictory expectations; how they learn to work with student diversity they had never encountered; and how schools should be learning communities to embrace and include the new AED(LBS). The paper discusses the need to define "inclusivity" and the need for the education system to become more professionally inclusive towards AED(LBS).

While there has been extensive research exploring the quality of caregiver-child interactions in programmes for preschool children, comparatively less international research has explored the nature of caregiver-child interactions in centre-based infant-care programmes. Nine caregivers in six Singapore infant-care settings were observed and interviewed in this study to explore the qualitative nature of caregiver-child interactions and the caregivers' talk about the education and care of infants. Some of the caregivers expressed beliefs that infants learn through quality interactions. However, not all caregivers were observed to provide interactions, especially during routine care. Some caregivers held the view that their primary role was providing physical care rather than education. Such differences in views and practices could have been influenced by the cultural backgrounds of individual caregivers. Implications for professional development of infant caregivers are discussed.

We introduce and reflect on "Images of Teaching", an ongoing web documentation research project on preschool teaching in Singapore. This paper discusses the project's purpose, methodological process, and our learning points as researchers who aim to contribute towards inquiry-based professional learning. The website offers a window into some Singaporean ways of working with young children in preschool settings; it contains video examples of authentic classroom teaching, contextualised with teacher reflections, artefacts, and interview transcripts. Based on two years of reflection and research meetings, we discuss four key learning points: a) utilising the affordances of web technology to create heteroglossia; b) the need to diversify "best practices"; c) encouraging dialogue and interrogation; and d) the need to see ourselves as knowledge brokers.

This article presents findings from a representative case study of a typical childcare centre in Singapore that achieved an emerging level of quality certification despite being under-resourced as a non-profit centre. Like other centres, it was navigating a climate of early childhood care and education (ECCE) policy reforms and teacher shortage. Given that quality rating has existed for a few years, the study aimed to explore centre-based conditions that could hinder or facilitate teachers' distributed pedagogical leadership and the development of a community of practice – both assumed to be necessary for teachers' continued learning and improvement of centres' practices. Qualitative data were generated across 10 months through observations, individual interviews and focus group discussions to journey with the teaching team as they negotiated relationships and built a shared vision for their practices. Results are presented here as three overarching themes that explicate: (a) the inevitable influences of the national context of the sector's workforce; (b) organisational culture and power relations; and (c) pedagogical vision. These illustrate the intricacies involved in centre-based quality improvement work, signalling the need for more investigations into the everyday realities of ECCE reforms as experienced by teachers-as-learners and leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article outlines key characteristics of Singapore's national values and the preschool education context, and provides a discussion of what the spirit of play could be like in Singaporean preschools. The article uses Deweyan principles to advocate for socially just curricula in Singaporean preschools that embrace "play" as a vehicle for children's learning.

This paper explores the relationship between workforce competence, migration, and quality improvement in the Asia-Pacific through analysis of Early Childhood Education (ECE) policy texts from three East Asia Summit countries. Content (word level) analysis of salient policy texts was undertaken to address two questions: How are culture and diversity conceptualized in these texts? How are diverse educators positioned in these texts? We show that, despite differing historical trajectories of ECE, policy frameworks in all three countries fail to sufficiently acknowledge the potential contribution of migrant educators to quality improvement initiatives. We conclude by calling for greater attention to workforce mobility and diversity in ECE policies, and for further research into the untapped competence of migrant educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is arguable whether Singapore's mainstream schools are moving towards ‘inclusion’ by providing support for students with mild to moderate disabilities through the provision of a newly created para-professional called the Allied Educators (Learning and Behavioural) [AED(LBS)]. Since 2005, the government has provided an incremental supply of these trained para-professionals to offer both in-class support and withdrawal sessions. Many primary and secondary schools have one such para-professional catering to an unpredictable number of children withandwithout assessed learning needs. This paper draws upon data from a study investigating how a group of 30 newly qualified AED(LBS) para-professionals shaped their professional role during their first year in school. Data were generated through an online survey, interviews; and analysed through theories on identity and communities of practice. Findings focus on how the participants had learned to grow into their roles despite contradictory expectations; how they learn to work with student diversity they had never encountered; and how schools should be learning communities to embrace and include the new AED(LBS). The paper discusses the need to define ‘inclusivity’ and the need for the education system to become more professionally inclusive towards AED(LBS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]