Globally, early years policies and documents have set out aspirational outcomes and benefits for children, their families and the wider society. These policies have emphasised the place of early childhood provision within the wider global agenda, by tackling inequality and disadvantage early on in children's lives. However, these strategies have also raised further debates regarding the way they have informed and shaped curricula frameworks and pedagogical approaches. The international team of contributors to this book argue that if these issues are not explicitly acknowledged, understood, critiqued and negotiated, emerging policies and documents may potentially lead to disadvantaging, marginalising and even pathologising certain childhoods. Divided into two parts, the volume demonstrates the dialectic nature of both policy and practice. The chapters in this wide-ranging text: (1) explore and articulate the philosophical premises and values that underpin current early childhood policy, curricula and pedagogies; (2) explicitly acknowledge and articulate some of potential conflicts and challenges they present; (3) provide examples of divergent and creative pedagogical thinking; and (4) highlight opportunities for enabling pedagogical cultures and encounters. This book is divided into two parts. Part I, Early Childhood Policies: Implications For Provision And Practice, contains the following chapters: (1) Balancing Traditions And Transitions: Early Childhood Policy Initiatives And Issues In Germany (Pamela Oberhuemer); (2) Piracy In Policy: Children Influencing Early Childhood Curriculum In Norway (Elin Eriksen Odegaard); (3) Pre-school Education In Bulgaria: Achievements And Challenges (Rozalina Engels-Kritidis); (4) Early Childhood Care And Education In Uzbekistan (Carol Aubrey); (5) Emerging Models For Early Childhood Development From Birth To Four In South Africa (Hasina Banu Ebrahim); (6) Early Childhood Education In The Philippines: Administration And Teaching Practices (Percyveranda A. Lubrica, Chul Woo Lee And Evelyn Angiwan); (7) Early Childhood Curriculum, Policy And Pedagogy: The Nigerian Perspective (Monica Odinko); (8) A Pedagogy For Educating "new Professionals" (Sue Callan, Michael Reed And Sharon Smith); And (9) Ireland: The Early Childhood Pedagogical Dilemma (Florence Dinneen). Part Ii, Early Childhood Practice: Enabling Pedagogical Cultures And Encounters, contains the following chapters: (10) The Japanese And Western View Of Nature: Beyond Cultural Incommensurability (Manabu Sumida); (11) Integrating Dance And Visual Arts In Taiwanese Early Childhood Education (Shu-ying Liu); (12) Working Theories and Learning Dispositions In Early Childhood Education: Perspectives From New Zealand (Sally Peters And Keryn Davis); (13) The Integration Of Young Children With Special Needs In Mainstream Nursery Schools (Athina Kammenou); (14) Promoting Emotional Well-being Or Mental Health? What's The Difference? (Anita Soni); (15) Engaging "hard-to-reach" Families: A View From The Literature (Gill Boag-Munroe); (16) A Relational Pedagogy In Community-based Early Childhood Development (Peter Rule); And (17) Architexture: Reading The Early Years Environment (Jan Georgeson and Gill Boag-Munroe).