Do early childhood education and care (ECEC) professionals make good advocates? Canadian advocates have fought for better child care policies since the mid-1940s. What has happened to this advocacy with the recent increased professionalization of the ECEC sector? How does increased professionalization limit, innovate or expand advocacy strategies?…

Drawing on imagery from promotional literature produced between 1930 and 1960 by the National Children's Home, a British child welfare charity, this article focuses upon constructions of childhood and child development in the context of residential care for children. It suggests that photographs and their related captions are rich sources through…

This dissertation explores the milieu in which children of Imperial Berlin were raised. When contemporaries in the rapidly expanding capital of the Second German Empire (1871-1918) looked at children, this milieu darkened. The city, they argued, threatened children's growing bodies, and such institutions as the home, the clinic, and the school…

The historical roots of current child advocacy movements can be found in the period, characterized as the child-saving era, of political activities of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The historical discussion points to the contributions which developmental and social psychology can make to the study of children's rights.…

Adapted from a speech given at the 1985 conference of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, this discussion addresses issues concerning the formation of a national child care policy and describes factors contributing to "child carelessness" in the conception and delivery of child care services. (KS)

Notes that the papers in this issue stress the need for a conceptual framework (historical, social, legal, and developmental) for defining the critical parameters involved in arriving at a sound basis for social policy and child advocacy. (Author/AM)

Examines the residual paradigm, used for shaping U.S. child welfare policies and programs, and argues that it has failed to address the problems of child poverty and to facilitate progress for children. Another approach to child welfare is proposed that takes into account structural issues based on current knowledge and practical realities…

This report discusses changes in markers of the well-being of children in California, focusing on at-risk children in lower income groups. The report considers earnings growth and decline for California's families, public and private resources available, family economics, health, education, and safety. Specific problems are discussed such as a…

The effects of Social Darwinism, eugenics, and contemporary political conservatism on the status of advocacy efforts for the mentally retarded are reviewed. Provided are historical sketches of Social Darwinism, which viewed the retarded as members of an inferior race, and eugenics, which argued for sterilization of the "genetically…

This collection of essays by child advocates explores three interconnected facets of the child care and education field: the broad sociocultural contexts influencing the development of young children and their families, the evolution of specific settings or programs where care and education occur, and the emerging consciousness of early childhood…

This report proposes a new national strategy to prevent child abuse and neglect. Four components of the proposed strategy are that it be: (1) comprehensive; (2) neighborhood-based; (3) child-centered; and (4) family-focused. Specific elements of the strategy include: (1) strengthening neighborhoods; (2) reorienting the delivery of human services;…

Analyzes the history of public concern regarding children's rights in the 20th century. Details the political process leading to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, the ratification of the Convention, and its political effects, and presents hypotheses regarding determinants of the Convention's worldwide impact. Notes areas where…

Discusses the problems faced by street and working children in Brazil, problems often exacerbated by the educational system. Describes how grass-roots activism led to enactment of an exceptional progressive law protecting children's rights. Examines the failure of technical rationality as the foundation of mainstream educational planning. (SV)

Federal and state tax laws and most private programs give funding to all parents who put their children in day care but give nothing to parents who cut back on their work hours to care for their own children. Challenging the conventional wisdom about child care, this book argues that Americans have wrongly embraced day care and devalued work that…

Over the last generation, parents have felt more and more intimidated by child care "experts" and have increasingly surrendered their role as the primary educators of their children. On the premise that theories of development, often colored by ideological positions on the family and its function in society, should take a back seat to…