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Lately, pedagogical coaches have been deployed in childcare as a form of continuous professional development (CPD) with the aim of improving the quality of childcare. While we have a clear understanding of what coaching should involve to be effective and how it improves the learning outcomes of young children, research has failed to capture the perspectives of the actors involved, such as pedagogical coaches, childcare managers and practitioners. These perspectives are important as policies alone are insufficient to bring about changes in practice. This paper captures the lifeworld of these actors of change by means of qualitative research in Flanders. Our results show that (i) a clear pedagogical framework within which pedagogical coaches work and within which the relationships between the different professional roles are defined is of crucial importance, (ii) to be effective in practice, pedagogical coaches need to value and respect childcare workers in what they do. In that sense, it is important to create horizontal relationships, rather than vertical ones and (iii) that systemic conditions impact the effectivity of the coaching. The deployment of pedagogical coaches should therefore be embedded in a systemic educational culture where the best interest of children is paramount.

Over the past few decades, scholars have paid attention to how PI (parental involvement) impacts children's performance at school. Hence, PI is often reduced to school-centric involvement. Moreover, several studies have shown social class differences in PI, but relatively little attention has been paid to social class differences in culturally diverse contexts. In this article, we contribute to this discussion by reflecting upon how parents conceptualize preschool and their involvement and exploring class differences in the culturally diverse context of rural China. Drawing on data from eight focus group interviews, this article explores rural parents' perceptions of the relationships with teachers, hereby asking what is good for their children and the utilization of guanxi (a specific form of social capital). The findings indicate parents are anxious about their child's education, particularly their early learning. Furthermore, parents want to build good relations with teachers, and they emphasize tinghua (children to be unconditionally respectful, compliant, and obedient) and the strategic use of guanxi for their child's education. We conclude with a discussion of the findings and reflection on the inequality in rural China.

The transition to primary school is widely seen as a period of multifaceted transformations and adoptions of different strategies for parents, yet relatively little is known about the lived transition experiences of parents from diverse (linguistic, cultural, socio-economic) backgrounds. This article explores the issue by examining maternal narratives in the context of having a child starting school in settings defined by family diversity through the lens of Paulo Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed." Four rounds of semi-structured interviews were conducted with two mothers of children from diverse backgrounds during their first year of primary school in two neighborhoods in Reykjavík, Iceland. The findings show that, for these mothers, engagement with the Icelandic ECEC system before and during the transition to school triggered them to take action when they felt that their concerns about their child's wellbeing were not taken seriously. The mothers' experiences furthermore brought about critical re-evaluation of their cultural background.

Parental involvement (PI) is one of the major narratives in educational reform. When exploring the literature on PI, we observed that it is unclear (i) how parents themselves are viewed within these conceptualizations and (ii) to what extent parents are being included in the conceptualization of PI. In this study, we explored both questions by conducting a thematic content analysis on the plethora of research on the theme of PI. We found that in most of the literature PI seems to function as a concept of convenience which can be used whenever it fits. We found that when attempts are made to conceptualize PI, parents are seldom involved, even though they are key stakeholders. Furthermore, our study shows that PI is almost always conceptualized as a means for promoting academic success. We call for a shift from instrumentalizing and silencing parents towards a reciprocal, symmetrical dialogic relationship between teachers and parents.

Child care quality in general, and caregiver-child interactions in particular, are salient predictors of children's outcomes. While the importance of process quality is well known, the complex relations between structural quality and process quality are far less researched in family child care, compared to centre based child care. Flanders shows unique features to do so, considering its high enrolment rates of the youngest children and its large share of licenced family child care. We studied the emotional and educational process quality in 200 family child care providers in Flanders, Belgium, using CLASS Infant and CLASS Toddler. The results suggest that educational dimensions are significantly poorer than emotional aspects of caregiver-child interactions. Educational quality appeared the lowest in eating and snack time situations and for toddlers also in free play. While structural features partly explained variations in process quality, it is hardly possible to attribute this to single variables. However, some structural features seem to matter more than others. Pre-service training and supervision mattered, while years of experience did not.

The literature strongly emphasises the importance of constructive relationships between parents and their children's caregivers. However, minimal empirical research has investigated relationships between language minority parents and caregivers in childcare. This large-scale study seeks to fill this gap by exploring the quality of the language minority parent‒caregiver relationship with a focus on the child's multilingual upbringing. Therefore, three domains that reflect the quality of parent‒caregiver relationships were assessed: (1) interpersonal connections, (2) home‒childcare continuity, and (3) language and multilingual upbringing advice parents receive from caregivers. The sample consists of 404 language minority parents, recruited from 85 childcare facilities (0–3 years). Results indicate that most parents reported positive relationships with their child's caregiver with respect to interpersonal characteristics (communication and trust). In contrast, parents responded less favorably regarding issues pertaining to their language expectations, including whether multilingual upbringing advice, either solicited or unsolicited, was discussed. While language advice was not frequently given, when it was given, multilingual advice was more prevalent than monolingual advice, and one-parent one-language (OPOL) advice was common. Practical and policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Influenced by a growing number of longitudinal studies showing positive effects of preschool attendance, Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) is framed as a potential equaliser of opportunities, benefitting children at risk of social exclusion and children from families with a migration background. However, as research into daily interactions in contexts of diversity and multilingualism remains scarce, the qualitative processes by which preschool may reduce or rather reproduce inequalities, remain under-theorised. In the present study, eight children were closely followed during their first year in pre-primary education in the Flemish Community of Belgium through video observations of daily interactions. The results suggest that both the quantity and quality of individual verbal interactions were low, with few opportunities for language production. The majority of utterances by teachers were disciplining in nature. The few occasions where a home language was used in individual interactions were intended to better direct the behaviour of the child. By closely observing these interactions, unintended mechanisms that hinder an equal distribution of learning opportunities were found in each of the classes.

A growing body of literature refers to the potential of parental involvement (PI) as a critical educational remedy and solution for a diversity of issues in ECEC. However, the reflection of mainstream values and assumptions and the lack of attention to cultural differences in this existing body of literature has been criticized. In this article, we, therefore, conducted 15 focus groups to explore parents and teachers' perspectives on what they perceive as 'good' for children in ECEC and on the relationship between families and schools in rural China. The findings indicate that parents and teachers' consider ECEC as a long-term investment in terms of social and intellectual capital. Furthermore, the conflicts between teachers and parents in our study on learning ideas were downplayed by 'pushed-down' reforming policy, and PI was featured by including parents into the life of "youeryuan," as well as the pedagogicalization of parents. This article concludes with a discussion about the findings and the potential of building relationships of mutual exchange, connectedness and solidarity.

In this contribution, we look--both historically and in the present--at how children are objectified in data and how it is assumed that this objectivation is a way to dismiss ideology, or at least to separate the ideological from the scientific. We argue, however, that the separation of data from ideology is itself a highly ideological choice. As Freire points out: education never was and never can be objective. The objectivation of the child and, more generally, of pedagogy means that the agenda that this serves remains veiled. A closer look at what data are put forward as the means to objectify education reveals that this agenda is deeply individualistic and fit to serve a competitive capitalist society. We argue that if this is the case, it ought to be the result of democratic debate and, therefore, we need more, not less, ideologies in pedagogy, because facts and data are always embedded in ideologies. And so they should be.

Southern feminist theorists make a pertinent call for the democratisation of knowledge between the North and the South. In this article, we embrace a southern perspective in feminist theory while embarking on a genealogical analysis of gender constructs in research about Igbo women in South-Eastern Nigeria. In that sense, the study of gender constructs within feminist scholarship is itself a major source of inspiration. We therefore throw light on how the social position of Igbo women has been theorised by Western anthropologists and historians and discuss the different strands in African and Nigerian scholarship that are concerned with reappropriating and theorising the social position of Igbo women. Our wide-ranging analysis shows, surprisingly, that both Northern and Southern feminist theorists ironically tend to reproduce and reinforce the colonial perspective. We therefore argue that historically, geographically, contextually and culturally grounded forms of knowledge should be produced, exchanged and imagined.

ABSTRACT Promoting social cohesion is frequently mentioned as an objective for child and family social work from a policy perspective. However, it is unclear how policies shape concrete child and family social work practices. The aim of the current study is to analyse how early childhood services in Flanders (Belgium) commit to the promotion social cohesion. An explorative multiple case study in Flanders, using (non)participatory observations (N = 40), was performed in child and family social work practices to answer the following research question: What is going on in child and family social work regarding the promotion of social cohesion? The research indicates that in the context of child and family social work, it is important to pay attention to the meaning of these light encounters as a possible way to foster social cohesion. Given the importance of light encounters in child and family social work, a reflection on the role of the infrastructure should be made. To end, a clear need and challenge became visible regarding the diversity in child and family social work practices. It is necessary to reach a diversity of families, but this implies that practitioners have the knowledge and know‐how in approaching and dealing with diversity issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) provision can have long-lasting positive effects on children's learning and development. A key feature in fostering educational outcomes is the enhancement of parental involvement. This article builds on critical concerns with the emergent 'schoolification' of ECEC and corresponding orientations of parental involvement to explore how educational partnering is perceived across countries. A thematic analysis of 13 ECEC curricula from divergent pedagogical traditions revealed subtle yet meaningful differences in interpretation and operationalisation. Three distinct curricular approaches to parental involvement were identified, which demonstrate a lack of unanimity in top-down constructions of parental roles and responsibilities. The article concludes with a discussion on the implications of these findings for policy and practice.

The discourse on parental involvement as a means to increase the educational attainment of underprivileged children has gained ground in the scholarly and policy field of preschool education. Nevertheless, this discourse is characterised by a 'democratic deficit' in which parents themselves are rarely involved in determining goals and modalities of parental involvement in sociological and educational studies (Tronto, J. C. 2013. "Caring Democracy: Markets, Equality, and Justice." New York: New York University Press). Ten video-elicited focus groups with migrant parents were organised in the Flemish community of Belgium in order to explore their meaning-making of preschool education and the parent-school relationship. The qualitative data suggest a perceived lack of attention for the care dimension in education. While parents are eager to know more about preschool, they cannot always express this eagerness. Based on these results, we recommend that preschool policies, practices, and research should consider communicative spaces for parents, professionals, and researchers in which multiple, yet opposing, meanings can be discussed.

It is generally accepted that Early Childhood Education and Care should adopt a holistic view on education, in which education and care are inseparable concepts. Perspectives of staff members themselves are, however, often absent in these educare debates. We conducted six video-elicited focus groups with various preschool staff members (n = 69) in Flanders (Belgium), which is well known for its split system in which children between two and a half and four years old are confronted with the pivotal transition from an informal or formal caring environment (home or childcare service) to a formal learning environment (preschool). With Maurice Hamington's theory of embodied and performative care as a theoretical lens for this empirical study, we propose a new direction for pre- and in-service training, in which the use of emotions, embodied exchange and social responsibility has a central place.

In this article, the author presents a genealogical analysis of the shifts (and continuities) in discourse during recent decades toward a "new sociology of childhood". He illustrates first historically (in Belgium and internationally) how the construction of the child at risk has been interconnected with the notion of the mother as responsible for both her child and the conditions of society overall. Societal and/or social phenomenon are first transformed into educational problems, then further reified onto the backs of children (and women) by identifying them (the children) as objects who require intervention because of "inadequate" mothering. Contemporarily, societal issues are reified in discursive regimes that have focused on children's rights and included notions like the "Autonomous Child" with whom parents and teachers are to develop a culture of negotiation. As with previous constructions, the author believes that current constructions of the child mirror constructions of parenthood. Most of the people would not disagree with the need to recognize autonomy and that children deserve emancipatory pedagogies in which their voices are "heard."

Over the last decades, increasing attention has been paid in research and policies to the importance of children's early learning in preschool as a foundation for later life. This is considered especially beneficial for children living in disadvantaged societal conditions and those at risk of school failure. However, the perspectives of those most closely involved in a child's learning, namely parents and preschool staff, are often absent in early learning debates. Ten video-elicited focus groups with migrant parents and three focus groups with preschool staff took place in the Flemish Community of Belgium. By conducting a "conventional content analysis," we present similar and opposing meanings that parents with migrant backgrounds and preschool staff attribute to early learning in regard to managing bodily needs of children and (dominant) language learning in preschools. Based on these results, we recommend that preschool policies and practices should continuously conceptualise early learning in dialogue with parents so that inclusion and exclusion mechanisms can be tracked, revealed, and dealt with.

In several countries, childminders grew in times of economic austerity and growing awareness of the economic function of childcare, as they were legitimised by a "home as heaven" ideology and low costs. As a result, childminders have long been regarded as the "Cinderellas" of childcare. Three decades later, scholars and policymakers agree on the importance of the educational function of childcare and thus on the importance of professional qualifications during the same time that these countries face the attrition of an entire generation of childminders. This gives rise to both quantitative and qualitative changes and raises the need to reconceptualise family day care (FDC). However, literature on this topic is scarce and information on non-English speaking countries is even more so. We explored productive policies and practices of "onthaalouders" (Flanders), "assistantes maternelles" (France) and "Tagesmütter" (Germany) in order to contribute to the small but increasing body of research in this field. This study shows that while the need for childcare workers is increasing, attrition of childminders might hamper the ambition to realise childcare and thus the attractiveness of the childminding profession requires an upgrade. New and hybrid forms of conjunction of centre-based and FDC challenge stereotypes about substitute mothering and offer possibilities to reconceptualise the childcare profession. However, they do not necessarily change the subordinate position of childminders in the early childhood education and care (ECEC) field.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is initiating the International Early Learning Study, a cross-national assessment of early learning outcomes involving the testing of 5-year-old children in participating countries. The authors use this colloquium to inform members of the early childhood community about this project and to raise concerns about its assumptions, practices and possible effects. The authors also invite readers' comments, to start a process of democratic dialogue and contestation.