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In this collection, the contributors look at the current spread of universalizing discourses concerning young children across the globe, examining the way these discourses, which purport to describe everyone in a scientific and neutral way, actually create mechanisms through which children are divided and excluded. The contributors to this book employ post-structuralist, postcolonial, and feminist theoretical frameworks. Following a preface (Elizabeth Swadener, Gaile Cannella, and Marianne Bloch, and a foreword (Thomas S. Popkewitz), the book is divided into four parts. Part I, "The Child in the World/ The World in the Child," contains: (1) Education and the Configuration of a Universal, Modern, and Globalized Childhood: An Introduction (Marianne Bloch, Devorah Kennedy, Theodora Lightfoot, and Dar Weyenberg.) Part II, "Governing the Universal, Modern Child and Family," continues with: (2) Educational Theories and Pedagogies as Technologies of Power/Knowledge: Educating the Young Child as a Citizen of an Imagined Nation and World (Marianne Bloch); (3) Configuring the Jewish Child: Intersections of Pedagogy and Cultural Identity (Devorah Kennedy); and (4) The Construction of the Asian American Children as "Model" Students (Susan Matoba Adler). Part III, "Governing the Modern and Normal Child through Pedagogical Discourses," presents: (5) Constructing the Young Child as a "Productive Citizen" through Language Acquisition Theory (Theodora Lightfoot); (6) The Quest for Health in Different Timespaces (Dar Weyenberg); (7) Visual Images and the Construction of Childhood Cultural Stories (Nancy Pauly); (8) The System of Reasoning the Child in Contemporary Japan (Jie Qi); and (9) The Specter of Irregularity Haunts the Child: A Historical Study of the "Problem-Child" in Brazilian Educational Discourses (Ana Laura Godinho Lima). Part IV, "Governing the Modern and Post-Modern Citizen and Nation through Universal Reforms in Education," contains the final chapters: (10) No Child Left Behind? The Specters of Almsgiving and Atonement: A Short Genealogy of the Saving Grace of US Education (Karen S. Pena); (11) Illusions of Social Democracy: Early Childhood Educational Voucher Policies in Taiwan (I Fang Lee); and (12) The Foundation Stage Child in a Shifting Sea: A History of the Present of the United Kingdom's Education Act 2002 (Ruth L. Peach).