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Becoming a parent is one of the most important transitional experiences in adulthood that has significant implications for new parents’ mental and physical health and psychosocial development. A growing body of research examines how men transition to fatherhood and balance their work and family obligations in complex contemporary societies. However, this phenomenological evidence remains under-theorised from the life-course development perspective. In this paper, a semiotic cultural approach to life-course transitions is used to explore how a sample of educated and employed Australian men in heterosexual relationships experienced and made sense of their fatherhood and work and family conflicts. Thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with 20 fathers highlights how these fathers attempt to navigate between multiple, ambiguous and sometimes contradictory societal expectations about fatherhood, while also struggling to balance their desires to be a ‘good father’ with their wives and partners’ attempts to be a ‘good mother’, thus evidencing the weak cultural guidance of transition to fatherhood. The analysis shifts the focus away from developmental outcomes and moves towards understanding the semiotic processes through which development occurs in the complex intertwinement between person and their environment. The discussion of men’s dilemmas about fatherhood also underscores the future orientation of human development and highlights how persons are actively and intentionally involved in this movement towards an unpredictable but imagined future.

There is a paucity of research exploring the experiences of mothers of a young adult with intellectual disability sharing the family home. A case study using a phenomenological life story approach was conducted to gather and analyse data from 11 in-depth interviews held with a mother, Linda, about her experiences. Linda’s story yielded three main themes, 1) an intense struggle and hardship of living ‘in the void’, 2) gathering resources and coping to counter the ‘masters of the universe’ and 3) developing a new ‘personal infrastructure’ to exit the void. Discussion underscores the value of stories of mothers and people with disability, including those of ableism, oppression, and stigma. Linda’s story depicts a complex and intricate life with both challenging and enriching times and a strong need for belonging to community. Future research is suggested, such as how mothers manage and negotiate barriers and systems within their lives.

During the last decades, Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) has received increasing local and global attention as a period and means to enhance in particular students’ academic learning. As such, ECEC has become part of the global investment in learning, and the global competition on knowledge. This renewed attention has in effect led ECECs to redirect their practices in an attempt to align with the overall political goals. This is particularly visible in the application of evidence-based educational methods and programs, which promise certain desirable learning outcomes. Implicitly, State policy goals are expected to operate as developmental goals of the single child or group of children. In this chapter, the question of evidence is investigated by focusing on the developmental implications of the political and practical efforts on the children living in the ECEC arrangements. Children’s development is approached through the concepts of personal engagement and life concerns with and in the world. Foundational to this approach is that developmental processes do not occur bypassing the developing person and his/her sociocultural life. Thus, the perspective emphasises the dynamic relation between the personal and collective level of culture as an inseparable analytical unit, while conceptualising development as a personal mode of being in this relation. Based on an empirical analysis of Danish children´s life in ECEC, it is argued that the current credo of evidence should reconsider its focus by building methodologies (rather than methods), which are sensitive to the cultural dynamics which constitutes the units in children´s construction of a cultural life course.

In concluding this volume, we come back to the questions that guided this book, namely, to explore when and how does the educational intrusion become a resource for individual and collective creativity, and when does it create unconstructive or destructive tensions for the individual and/or for the community. We consider the suggestions developed in each of the chapters and through that build a bricolage of knowledge on cultivated education that cultivates people and vice versa. Furthermore, we suggest to view the relationship between societal, community and personal values, interests, and concerns that feed into the construction of “good education” as a dynamic and evolving dialectic, where the aim is not the resolution of tensions, but rather a constructive engagement between various voices and perspectives. We argue that while antagonistic contradictions lead to the othering of children and students in education, and of education for children and students, constructive contradictions have the potential to generate knowledge from the tensioned dialogues, not only showing concern for its already cultivated children and students, but also paving the way for the usability of education in the community., In concluding this volume, we come back to the questions that guided this book, namely, to explore when and how does the educational intrusion become a resource for individual and collective creativity, and when does it create unconstructive or destructive tensions for the individual and/or for the community. We consider the suggestions developed in each of the chapters and through that build a bricolage of knowledge on cultivated education that cultivates people and vice versa. Furthermore, we suggest to view the relationship between societal, community and personal values, interests, and concerns that feed into the construction of “good education” as a dynamic and evolving dialectic, where the aim is not the resolution of tensions, but rather a constructive engagement between various voices and perspectives. We argue that while antagonistic contradictions lead to the othering of children and students in education, and of education for children and students, constructive contradictions have the potential to generate knowledge from the tensioned dialogues, not only showing concern for its already cultivated children and students, but also paving the way for the usability of education in the community.

This introductory chapter opens the field of education in a cultural developmental perspective and explains how and why learning and development can be considered as cultural processes. It discusses the way the tensioned dialogues and creative constructions between education and culture are conceptualized in this book and outlines the guiding question for this volume: when and how does an educational intrusion produce a constructive surplus of individual and collective creativity, and when do educational contributions create unconstructive or even destructive tensions for the single individual and/or for the community? The introduction also provides an overview of the main themes discussed in each chapter., This introductory chapter opens thefield of education in a culturaldevelopmental perspective and explains how and why learning and development canbe considered as cultural processes. It discusses the way the tensioned dialogues andcreative constructions between education and culture are conceptualized in this bookand outlines the guiding question for this volume: when and how does an educationalintrusion produce a constructive surplus of individual and collective creativity, andwhen do educational contributions create unconstructive or even destructive tensionsfor the single individual and/or for the community? The introduction also provides anoverview of the main themes discussed in each chapter.