The COVID-19 pandemic has created an opportunity to examine the initial policies developed by Australian, Canadian, English, German, Greek and Irish governments to limit the spread of the virus. This has revealed governments' conceptualisation of the early childhood sector and its workforce. This paper argues that neoliberal ideology and…

This article analyses the impact on Early Years Education policy of the crisis provoked by COVID 19 pandemia and raises some questions about the future. For a better understanding of this impact COVID 19, I present the construction of this educational level since the nineteenth century contrasting two essential models -- the educational assistance…

Despite the existence of early childhood education (ECE) settings since the mid 19th century and a substantial increase in the availability and accessibility of services over the last four decades, ECE in Malta still struggles to find its voice. Its introduction and development has been marked by erratic progress. The colonial heritage, the Roman…

This article concerns gender equality work, that is, those educational and workplace activities that involve the promotion of gender equality. It is based on research conducted in Sweden and Finland, and focuses on the period during which the public sector has become more market-oriented and project-based all over the Nordic countries. The…

While TVET literature focuses on the potential role of the sector in socio-economic development, seldom is attention given to how socio-economic conditions and policies affect the development of the sector. This paper endeavours to contribute to filling this gap. It argues that examining the factors that influence access, equity and outcomes of…

Reconstructing the parallel structure of "dual" and "school-based" vocational routes reveals the close connection between the German vocational training system and the segmentation of the labour market by gender. The example of jobs in childcare and pre-primary education shows that the legacy of semi-professionalism in these…

An insufficient number of affordable places in Russia's preschool system is affecting the educational development of many young children and reducing the number of mothers who could be working in the economy.

This article draws on data from two recently completed Economic and Social Research Council funded projects in order to examine class differences and similarities in choice of school and choice of childcare. The authors argue that there is every reason to believe that in many circumstances, within its particular mechanisms and practices, choice…

As many countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have developed more universal provision for early childhood education during the last decades, preschool increasingly has become a central policy arena. Gender politics, especially with an aim to promote female labour market participation, but also policies addressing…

The effect of child care regulations on outcomes in the child care market and the labor market for mothers of young children is examined. The analysis uses a time series of cross sections and examines the robustness of previous cross-section findings to controls for state-level heterogeneity. Child care regulations as a group have statistically…