In Finland, day care centre directors have traditionally led only a single unit, but after the recent merging of many units, most directors simultaneously lead several, physically separate units. These organizations are called distributed organizations. This study was carried out in two distributed day care organizations. The findings are based on…

In a French early childhood care and education system that is strongly divided by age and institution, the current research studies the collective life of children at the pivotal age of two to three years of age in four different early childhood settings: (1) a group of "grands" (nursery) in a "crèche" (daycare centre), (2) a…

Cocaring encompasses how parents and teachers work together to coordinate caregiving. Two critical components of cocaring have demonstrated importance for child and parent well-being: support and undermining. Although parent-teacher relationships have been studied via qualitative interviews and through self-administered questionnaires, little…

Over the past 200 years, early childhood provision in Germany has primarily been oriented towards the goal of work-care reconciliation. Even though there is a long tradition in Germany of education-oriented approaches, the primary goal has always been care. The extensive development of early childhood centres for children under three years of age…

This article focuses on how Early Childhood Education and Care institutions provide for 1- to 3-year-olds' risky play--a previously little researched topic--utilizing data from an exploratory, small-scale study investigating aspects of risky play in the age-group. The main findings describe how three essentially different Early Childhood Education…

This study used latent class analysis with data from the 2002/03 Head Start Impact Study to determine whether early childhood classrooms can be sorted into classroom quality groups based on their scores on multiple measures of quality, how many classroom quality groups could be identified, and what percentages of classrooms fall within each…

"Sounds of Intent in the Early Years" explores the musical development of children from birth to five years of age. Observational evidence has been utilised together with key literature on musical development and core concepts of zygonic theory (Ockelford, 2013) to investigate the applicability of the original "Sounds of…

Research Findings: Most infant teachers have been prepared to be early childhood educators with minimal theoretical or practical exposure to infancy. This study highlights the outcomes of a professional development program (PDP) designed to support a group of infant teachers who lacked specific infancy preparation to re-envision their roles. Data…

Research about infants' capacity to communicate using cries, smiles and sophisticated emotional strategies to connect with adults in their lives has predominantly emerged from the field of developmental psychology, with relatively limited attention to how babies enact such communicative practices with key adults in naturalistic settings. This…

Inspired by perspectives from actor-network theory, this paper challenges key assumptions in evidence-based pedagogies. Through a multi-sited analysis of the evidence-based pedagogy "Dialogic Reading" (DR) in the area of early childhood education and care in Denmark, the paper explores how DR is enacted as part of an assemblage of tests,…

In countries with universal access to early childhood education and care (ECEC), child participation is high across a range of socioeconomic groups. However, ECEC quality is often varying, and many children spend much time in ECEC settings that are not necessarily high quality. In this observational study, we therefore examined the relationship…

Belonging is emerging as an important concept in contemporary early childhood curricula, and calls have recently been made for belonging to be critically interrogated and further theorized. This article explores how belonging was operating for an infant in Australian family day care by looking at an episode that took place between the infant, a…

Measuring classroom quality and ensuring high-quality learning experiences for young children are interests of the Early Childhood Education Research Alliance, a research alliance of Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast & Islands. This study, conducted in collaboration with the alliance, addresses these interests by examining multiple…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether kindergartens and childcare centres differ in terms of educational and caregiving components. More specifically, two aspects of the process quality of the early childhood education and care were examined regarding the "Activities" and the "Programme Structure." A multi-stage…

Research has shown the potential for early childhood education and care (ECEC) in making a difference for all children. However, research also highlights how hard overcoming the "gaps" between children from differing social backgrounds still is. The overall aim of this article is to examine the impact of a professional development…