Exposing pre-service teachers to international professional experiences through a short-term visiting programme serves to challenge their understandings of good quality practice through disturbing assumptions and expectations previously formed through experiences in their own country/culture. Much of the research in international study focuses on…

International findings indicate only moderate childcare quality and results revealed significant differences between regions. So far, this difference cannot be explained by structural characteristics. Based on the National Study on Education, Learning and Upbringing in Early Childhood (NUBBEK) sample of 215 lead teachers, the influence of…

Swedish preschool teachers must systematically document activities in the preschool in order to evaluate the quality of these activities. Pedagogical documentation is one form of documentation that is proposed. The aim of this article is to discuss and create knowledge of structures and tools based on different communicative aspects of pedagogical…

This study examined whether children's observed individual engagement with teachers, peers, and tasks related to their school readiness after controlling for observed preschool classroom quality and children's baseline skills. The sample included 211 predominately low-income, racially/ethnically diverse 4-year-old children in 49 preschool…

We examined whether the moderating role of cortisol in the relation between physical peer victimization and physical aggression was better accounted for by a diathesis-stress model or a differential susceptibility model using a multi-informant approach (direct observations, teacher reports, and parent reports) of 198 preschool-aged children…

This article reports on the findings of a follow-up study, which examined parents' and teachers' perspectives regarding the quality of childcare for 3- to 5-year-old children in the United States, Russia and Finland between 1991 and 2011. The study aims to address a gap in early childhood education (ECE) research by examining how the quality of…

A growing body of research exists on the effectiveness of classroom-based intervention programs to prevent and ameliorate social, emotional, and learning difficulties demonstrated by young children at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). Yet, little research has examined the influence of these targeted intervention programs on the…

This study examined and compared the extent to which early childhood educators' (ECEs) and home childcare providers' (HCPs) practices supported children's play. The sample included 50 ECEs and 20 HCPs in settings that care for 70 children at 18, 24, and 36 months old. At each time point, the childcare process quality was observed using the…

Mainstreaming gender within pre-primary education is a priority in tackling gender-related inequalities from the early years. Such mainstreaming requires the commitment of a variety of stakeholders within the education system and beyond, including different units within education ministries, pre-service and in-service teacher training providers,…

In the years immediately preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, policymakers, researchers, and philanthropists recognized the pressing need to build and strengthen the early care and education (ECE) workforce. Evidence documenting the relationship between early childhood educator professional preparation and children's outcomes spurred a growing…

As teacher shortages or teacher turnover rate continue to proliferate in the field of early childhood education (ECE) across the United States in the past few decades, there seem to be a pressing need for teacher preparation programmes to accommodate prospective ECE pre-service teachers (who do not have the chance to enroll in traditional teacher…

Research shows that modern forms of colonization are vested with globalizing discourses which include early childhood education, gender, and curriculum policies and practices that are Euro-western based. In this collaborative qualitative study, four ethnographic researchers--two who conduct research in Nepal and two who conduct research in…

Although a quality preschool supports young children's health and safety, "quality" has been defined diversely enough that its delivery has been varied among kindergarten teachers. The current study was the first to examine and compare perceptions of school safety between urban and rural kindergarten teachers. Sixty-seven Hong Kong…

In 2014, the Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes (CEELO) was asked to provide information on how other states are approaching the development and implementation of Kindergarten Entry Assessment (KEA) as part of a comprehensive assessment system. Specifically, the request asked for information about KEA measures used by other states, the…

The aim of this article is to highlight the concept "quality" with a special focus on preschool teachers' understanding and compare what preschool teachers in Austria, Bulgaria and Sweden regard as quality. Although quality is at high degree a subjective concept, some aspects are regarded decisive for good quality. A questionnaire was…