This book focuses on quality issues in early childhood education and care in the United Kingdom.

This book focuses on quality issues in early childhood education and care in Korea.

This book focuses on quality issues in early childhood education and care in Portugal.

This book focuses on quality issues in early childhood education and care in New Zealand.

This series of country reports focuses on quality issues in early childhood education and care.

This book focuses on quality issues in early childhood education and care in Japan.

This report reviews quality in childhood education and care in Finland. It suggest strengths and point to areas for further reflection on current policy initiatives.

This series of reports on early childhood education and care suggests strengths and point to areas for further reflection on current policy initiatives. This report on the Slovak Republic focuses on improving workforce qualifications, training and working conditions.

This book explores how concepts and values of contemporary democracy are variously understood and applied in diverse cultural contexts, with a focus on children and childhood and diversity. Drawing on a range of methodological approaches relevant to early childhood education, it discusses young children's engagement and voice. The book identifies existing practices, strengths, theories and considerations in democracy in early childhood education and childhood, highlighting the democratic participation of children in cultural contexts. Further, it illustrates how democracy can be evident in early childhood practices and interactions across a range of curriculum contexts and perspectives, and considers ways of advancing and sustaining practices with positive transformational opportunities to benefit children and wider ecological systems. It offers readers insights into what democracy and citizenship look like in lived experience, and the issues affecting practice and encouraging reflection and advocacy.

This book captures information about early childhood education and care (ECEC) policies and practices in different countries and aims to question the degree to which these countries have managed to meet the needs of children, families, and the ECEC workforce. The book illustrates how different countries have adapted different strategies focusing on policy when it comes to quality ECEC. The goal of the book is twofold. First and foremost, it aims to present key findings and challenges for improving ECEC as a whole. Second, it aims to highlight problems and concerns which the field of ECEC faces, with respect to delivering high-quality care and education to all children. As neither “ECEC” nor “quality” are universal concepts – but are shaped by social-cultural values, as well as national, economic, and political contexts in which ECEC services are provided – this cross-country volume is extremely relevant for fully understanding issues in the field of ECEC. This book was originally published as a special issue of Early Child Development and Care.