Background: Effective collaboration between parents and teachers is a crucial component of early childhood education (ECE) institutions in Indonesia. Both parties hold a fundamental responsibility for imparting knowledge within the formal school setting and the informal home environment. Aim: The present study investigates the patterns of…

This doctoral research addressed the dearth of research focussed on childminding in Ireland, despite its significant role in national childcare provision. One overarching aim was to explore childminders' pedagogy. The research was conducted within the theoretical framework of Ecocultural Theory (ECT) against the backdrop of Irish Early Childhood…

Children, including those who are deaf, become aware of and learn about their environments through playing and social and cultural interactions. For most deaf children, preschool classrooms are optimal spaces for these interactions to occur, but only if they can fully engage with this environment. We discuss the need for and constituent aspects of…

Young children bring rich social, cultural, and political knowledge to school, cultivated in their homes and communities. This knowledge, ranging from household skills to multilingual practices, is often marginalized in schools that value different norms. Drawing from ethnographic studies in Illinois and New York kindergarten classrooms, this…

Research and practice that builds on family strengths is uniquely positioned to support children's math learning in ecologically valid and culturally meaningful ways. Yet, there is little specificity as to what it means to take a strengths-based approach in early math research. We propose a conceptual framework for studying early math from a…

This study reports the findings of extensive ethnographic research in which six preschoolers were observed for 2 years at a preschool in Saudi Arabia. Drawing on the sociocultural perspectives of literacy learning, this study focuses on the early literacy practices in the Saudi home context of two preschoolers and their mothers. The data described…

A primary task for refugee families and children who are resettling in a new country is to develop a sense of belonging in that place, time and context. This article theorises the "powhiri," the traditional Maori ceremony of welcome or ritual of encounter, as a metaphor for refugee families and children coming to belong in Aotearoa New…

Care is traditionally researched in ECEC as a dyadic, human phenomenon that relies heavily of tropes of females as care providers. The assumption that care is produced in dyadic relationships occludes material care practices that occur beyond the dyad. Drawing on Bernice Fisher and Joan Tronto's care ethics and Karen Barad's focus on the agency of…

This descriptive case study examined how teaching practices were evidenced in Grade 1 classrooms in two different cultural and educational contexts, Finland and Japan. Teachers' teaching practices were video-recorded in 53 classrooms in Finland and six classrooms in Japan and rated with the Early Childhood Classroom Observation Measure by trained…

With studies on the physical environment of preschools concentrating mostly on settings in the Western world, before establishing minimum standards of quality, developing contextually appropriate physical environment factors become pertinent in Malaysia as a universal and possibly unaffordable high-quality standard may lead to ill-informed policy…

The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of a professional development (PD) program on preschool teacher assistants' (TAs) attitudes toward multilingualism and self-efficacy in working with linguistically and culturally diverse children (LCDC) and their parents. The study was conducted in a northern peripheral city in Israel that reflects…

The current study explores Taiwanese preschool children's understanding of the value of caring in school. This study offers researchers and practitioners opportunities to study children's perspectives in a particular cultural setting and discuss the connectedness of culture and children's views on caring. Participatory research and qualitative…

How do very young children develop a sense of identity and belonging culturally, and how can this sense be supported by early care and education teachers and programs? This article examines literature associated with identity and belonging in early childhood and how those who work closely with children and families can incorporate best practices…

This paper examines how worldviews and national values are displayed in the national (Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) curricula of Sweden, Finland and Norway. The specific interest is to investigate what similarities and differences there are between these three ECEC curricula with regard to the position of religions and other…

How do teacher preparation programs re-culture themselves so that we can supply educational settings with teachers who work toward liberation from racism and other systems of oppression? Abolitionist education is one strategic framework that can be utilized to support this systemic re-culturing. I share my experiences in re-designing and…