Drawing on ethnographic data from two Romanian and two Danish nurseries, we explore the agency of children aged 9 months to 2.5 years. Considering action, time, and place, the article reflects on crying as one of the children's agentic practices. We identified five predominant types of crying and analysed peers' and caregivers' perceptions and…

This article compares the institutional bereavements response systems available in Danish and Norwegian daycare institutions when encountering critical illness or death among attached families. Both countries' structured responses are developed around bereavement response plans that highlights the actions, which should be taken by institution…

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, in this article, I tell the story of a particular Syrian family and their encounter with a day-care institution in Denmark -- and by extension with the Danish state. In doing so, I highlight how the initially legitimate worries and genuine care of the institution turned into a form of 'coercive concern'…

Based on fieldwork conducted in two day care centres in Denmark, this paper explores knowledge and action as relational and intertwined phenomena in nursery teaching. Engaging with perspectives from actor network theory, emphasis is put on the socio-material distribution of knowing and acting. That is, how the nursery teacher becomes part of…

Interpersonal interactions during childhood form the foundation for development and learning (Tomasello, 2014; Vygotsky, 1962, 1978). Numerous studies have documented the impact of interactions between preschool teachers and preschool-aged children between 3 and 6 years of age (e.g., Denham et al., 2003; Hamre, Hatfield, Pianta & Jamil, 2013).…

Structural quality in childcare centers is considered a precondition for process quality, which in turn is related to children's outcomes. However, the evidence on relations between structural and process quality is mixed. Moreover, despite strong theoretical claims, empirical evidence supporting the indirect relation of structural features…

The present article reports results of a real-world effectiveness trial conducted in Denmark with six thousand four hundred eighty-three 3- to 6-year-olds designed to improve children's language and preliteracy skills. Children in 144 child cares were assigned to a control condition or one of three planned variations of a 20-week storybook-based…

Several early literacy programmes have documented their effectiveness in enhancing children's early literacy and language development. Despite recent interest in implementing evidence-based programmes, only a few studies have set out to capture the implementation process of early literacy programmes as seen from the programme users' perspectives.…

It is essential that early educators in day-care services possess adequate pedagogical tools for supporting children's communicative development. Early literacy programmes (ELPs) are potential tools. However, studies investigating the effects of ELPs seldom address implementation processes or the programme users' perspectives. This study sheds…

In this article I discuss contemporary tensions between policy, research and practice within Danish early childhood education and care. I present a critical, but open-ended, pastiche narrative with elements of modernization, evidence-based practice and (post-) positivistic research. I draw on postmodern and post-pragmatist sources to construct…