This paper shares reflections and stories from a collaborative design process between the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab and a global network of community-based educators to develop a creative coding app called OctoStudio, which supports children and families to create and share interactive projects on mobile devices. The app…

Colonisation in Australia has had long-term, pervasive, detrimental impacts on Indigenous Australians. When measured by national benchmarks, Indigenous children in Australia are currently at increased risk of developmental difficulties in comparison to their non-Indigenous peers. Community-led initiatives, such as playgroups, can provide safe and…

This article is based on a team ethnographic study in the province of Yauyos in the Peruvian Andes. It focuses on rural education and the inequalities surrounding it. Teachers and parents exchange mutual recriminations as they seek to explain why some children have greater difficulties than others and why urban schools achieve superior results as…

The primary purpose of this paper is to illustrate how a critical realist approach can add to our understanding of professional recognition of educators in a pre-school setting. Recognition is a function of personal achievement and social arrangement, and is understood through examining those subjective conditions and objective structures as…

Early parenting interventions have shown to be effective for changing parenting behaviours to provide stimulation at home. However, evidence about the effect on decision to timely enrol the child in preschool and the related pathways is scarce. A follow-up study of a rural cohort exposed to early parenting interventions in the first 2 years of…

How engaged families are in their children's lives, whether at home or in school, predicts their success in school and in life. The purpose of this study was to explore parent, educator, and community member perspectives of family engagement, preschool through grade 12, to inform state-level policy from an ecological framework. Ten semi-structured…

Preparing teachers to work with children and families cultivates high-quality early learning. This study explored the impact of service-learning on early childhood pre-professional students (candidates) and community partners (CPs). Focus group transcripts illustrate connections between service and professional preparation standards.…

As transgender individuals receive more attention nationwide, it is only a matter of time before increased numbers of transgender educators seek placement in teacher education programs, and eventually, employment as teachers. Given the high levels of discrimination against transgender individuals historically, it is reasonable that P-12 school…

This study (n = 11) examined active community-school collaborative classes using sociocultural constructivist approaches over an academic year in an early childhood institute. A semi-formal interview was conducted to describing how the early childhood teachers and community members worked collaboratively to develop community engagement activities…

Anecdotal evidence suggests that grandparents provide a substantial amount of childcare support to parents of infants in Ireland yet there has been little attention to the provision of grandparent childcare at policy level. Using nationally representative data on childcare provision in the Republic of Ireland, this study examined the prevalence of…

Collaborative and reciprocal teacher-parent partnerships have been established in prior research as vital in empowering ethnic-minority children to be competent learners who value their home background, culture, and language and also learn the language used by teachers as the medium of education. Such collaborative relationships may be challenging…

One of the goals of Montessorians is to spread Montessori education and make quality Montessori education available for children. However, one of the obstacles is the lack of information in the world (and an abundance of misinformation) about the Montessori philosophy. In 2009, these two issues came to a head in what evolved into a battle of…

This case study examined a joint assessment and allocation panel set up to inform local implementation of the UK Government's policy of integrating children's services, particularly the introduction of a Common Assessment Framework and the lead practitioner role. It brought together agencies serving one community. Professionals and parents agreed…

This paper was prepared collectively by participants of the third seminar in a series with the title Challenging ""Social Inclusion": Perspectives for and from Children and Young People". Three 3-day seminars took place at the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling in 2002-3 attended by academics, professionals from…