Student engagement and well-being are critical for academic success and overall development. This Spotlight explores strategies to create supportive and engaging learning environments that foster student motivation and well-being. From re-emphasizing the importance of play in kindergarten to leveraging the power of outdoor learning, these articles…

This study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of belonging in early educational institutions based on key findings developed within the international project Politics of belonging: promoting children's inclusion in educational settings across border (85644). The research questions are: What are the main empirical and theoretical…

Current research and literature emphasize the crucial role of group experiences in children's learning during early childhood. However, despite the frequent use of the term 'group', little attention has been paid to its position in children's learning and the diverse perspectives that inform it. This study addressed this gap by applying a…

There are a significant number of toddlers participating in early childcare (ECE) services in New Zealand. At the same time, there is a dearth of research examining these toddlers during their first ECE experiences. The extant literature has predominantly focused on adult-child relationships rather than toddlers' experiences with their peers. A…

Elementary school children bring a rich diversity of language to classrooms, a richness that often goes undervalued in educational settings in which teachers feel they must and do emphasize dominant ways of using English. The ways in which teachers interact with children about their language use can influence the linguistic belonging of children…

This article explores the intricate connections between identity and place in early childhood education with refugee and immigrant children and their families, by focusing on the work of five early childhood settings. The article foregrounds the development of an online resource, that provides illustrative examples from the early childhood…

Handicapped, special, or diverse? Segregated, mainstreamed, or included? The field of disability and difference within education, is vast and wide-ranging. This review of the literature highlights how, although we have come far in the last 40 years, there is still much to learn about effective inclusion of disabled children in early childhood…

Building on the idea that the culture of an organisation has an extremely deep influence on the personalities, minds and identities of people who participate in it (Hofstede 2015) -- we reflected on how the US and Polish cultures' specific values and beliefs were represented and symbolised in the early childhood settings. We focused our analysis…